AC IFIC COAST 
VACATION 

MRS. JAMES EDWIN MORRIS 





Class i_%r\ 

Copyright N^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




MRS. JAMES EDWIN MORRIS. 



A 

PACIFIC COAST 

VACATION 



BY 

Mrs. JAMES EDWIN MORRIS 



Illustrated from Photographs Taken En Route 
by James Edivin Morris 



THE 



Hbbcy press 

PUBLISHERS 

114 

FIFTH AVENUE 

LONDON NEW YORK MONTREAL 



J ' ' 1 /, 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copits Received 

JUN. 8 1901 

COPVRIGHT ENTRY 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1901, 

by 

THE 

Hbbcy press 



Dedicated to Alaska's Beautiful Daughter, 
Miss Edna McFarland 

Linked in my memory of those sea-girt shores where 
?now-crowned mountains tower like castles old ; where 
wild cataracts hurl their waters down rugged cliffs to the 
sea; where sea gulls mingle their cries with the rushing 
torrents ; where frost giants stride up and down the 
land ; where the Aurora flames through the long win- 
ter nights, will ever be the name of this gifted daughter 
of Alaska. 



FOREWORD 

If you ask what motive she who loved these 
scenes had in essaying to portray them with pen 
and camera, she would reply that like the Duke 
of Buckingham, when visiting the scene where 
Anna of Austria had whispered that she loved 
him, let fall a precious ,2:em that another finding 
it, might be happy in that charmed spot where 
he himself had been. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



FOREWORD 



CHAPTER 

I. AUF WIEDERSEHEN 

II. PLENTY OF ROOM 

III. OFF FOR ALASKA 

IV. FIRST VIEWS 

V. FURTHER GLIMPSES 

VI. GOLD FIELDS 

VII. MUIR GLACIER . 

VIII. SITKA 

IX. ALASKA 

X. FAREWELL TO SKAGWAY . 

XI. WASHINGTON AND OREGON . 

XII. OFF FOR CALIFORNIA . 

XIII. SAN FRANCISCO .... 

XIV. CALIFORNIA FARMS AND VINEYARDS 

XV. YOSEMITE 

XVI. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

XVII. HERE AND THERE ON THE COAST 

XVIII. WALLA WALLA VALLEY 

XIX. HISTORICAL REFERENCES 

XX. YELLOWSTONE PARK . 



I 

34 
46 
59 
72 

85 
91 
103 
116 
129 
137 
160 

173 

187 
191 
210 
217 
224 
228 
236 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Junction of the Mississippi and Black Rivers 9 

Falls of Saint Anthony 11 

Falls of Minnehaha 1'^ 

Old Fort SneUing l-") 

Roadway, Soldiers' Barracks, Fort Snelling 17 

Entering the Cascade Range 35 

Lava Beds in Washington 37 

Tangle of Wild Fern in a Washington Forest 39 

Mount Rainier 41 

Street in Tacoma, Washington 45 

Parliament House, Victoria 51 

Gorge of Homathco 53 

Light House, Point Robert 55 

Fjords of Alaska 57 

Fishing Hamlet of Ketchikan 59 

Fort Wrangle, Alaska 63 

Chief Shake's House, Fort Wrangle C'? 

Entering Wrangle Narrows '<'l 

Douglas Island, Looking Toward Juneau 73 

Silver Bow Canon, Juneau. {By perviission of F. 

Laroche, photographer, Seattle, Washington) 75 

Old Russian Court House, Juneau 77 

Street in Juneau '^^ 

Greek Church, Juneau ^1 

Indian Chief's House, Juneau ^3 

Summit of the Selkirk Range, at Head of Yukon 
River. Old Glory Waves Beside the British 

Flag ^5 



List of Illustrations. 

PAGK 

The Skaguay Enchantress 89 

Skaguay, Showing White Pass 91 

Muir Glacier (section of) 93 

Greek Church, Killisnoo 99 

Kitchnatti 101 

Sitka — Soldiers' Barracks, Old Russian Warehouse 
and Greek Church on the right, Indian Vil- 
lage on tlie left, Russian Blockhouses Beyond, 
and Mission Schools in the Distance. {By 
permission of F. Laroclie, photographer, 

Seattle, Washington) 103 

Indian Avenue, Sitka 105 

Blockhouse on Bank of Indian River, Sitka, Alaska. 107 

Rapids, Indian River, Sitka 113 

Where Whales and Porpoises Poke Their Noses Up 

Through the Brine 119 

Steamer Queen Leaving Juneau 133 

Alps of America 135 

Government Locks on the Columbia River 143 

Rapids, Columbia River 145 

Farm on the Bank of the Columbia River, Below 

the Dalles, Oregon 147 

Scene on an Oregon Farm in the Willamette Valley . 151 

Roadway in Oregon 153 

Climbing the Shasta Range 163 

The Highest Trestle in the World, near Muir's Peak, 

- Shasta Range 165 

Mount Shasta. (By permission of F. Laroche, 

photographer, Seattle, Washington) 167 

Street Scene in Chinatown, San Francisco 177 

Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 181 

Early Morning, Yosemite Valley 189 

Wawona Valley 191 



List of Illustrations. 

PAQK 

Oldest Log Cabin in the Sequoia (irove, Mariposa 
County, California. Old Columbia in the 

Foreground 193 

Half Dome and Merced River 195 

Merced River, Yosemite Valley 197 

Yosemite Falls 199 

El Capitan 201 

Bridal Veil Falls and the Three Brothers (solid rock) 203 

Mirror Lake, Sleeping Water 205 

Yosemite Falls, Showing Floor of the Valley 207 

Sunrise in Yosemite Valley 209 

Entering Hell Gate Canon 233 

Liberty Cap and Old Fort Yellowstone 235 

Hotel Mammoth, Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park. . 237 
Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone Park, Just Before 

an Eruption 239 

Yellowstone Lake 241 

Camping on the Shore of Lake Yellowstone 243 

Paint Pots on Shore of Yellowstone Lake 245 

Grand Canon of the Yellowstone 247 

Gibbon River Falls 249 

Micky and Annie Rooney 251 



A Pacific Coast Vacation 



CHAPTER I 

AUF WIEDERSEHEN 

Off to see the land of icel)ergs and glaciers ; 
the land I have often visited in my imagination. 
It seems but yesterday that the first geography 
was put into my hands. O, that dear old geog- 
raphy, the silent companion of my childhood 
days. 

The first page to which I opened pictured 
an iceberg, with a polar bear walking right up 
the perpendicular side, and another bold fellow 
sitting on top as serenely as Patience on a mon- 
ument. 

*' What was an iceberg ? What were the 
bears doing on the ice and what did they eat? 
Was that the sun shining over yonder? Why 
didn't it melt the ice and drop the bears into the 
sea? No, that was not the sun, it was the 



2 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

aurora borealis. Aurora? Who was she and 
why did she Hve in that cold, cold country, the 
home of Hoder, the gray old god of winter? " 

The phenomenon of the aurora was ex- 
plained to us, but to our childish imagination 
Aurora ever remained a maiden whose wonder- 
ful hair of rainbow tints lit up the northern 
sky. 

We talked of Aurora, we dreamed of 
Aurora, and now we are off to see the charming 
ice maiden of our childhood fancy. 

Off to Alaska. For years we have dreamed 
of it; for days and weeks we have breakfasted 
on Rocky Mountain flora, lunched on icebergs 
and glaciers and dined on totem poles and In- 
dian chiefs. 

Much of the charm of travel in any country 
comes of the glamour with w^hich fable and 
legend have enshrouded its historic places. 

America is rapidly developing a legendary 
era. Travel up and down the shores of the 
historic Hudson and note her fabled places. 

The " Headless Hessian " still chases timid 
" Ichabods " through " Sleepy Hollow." " Rip 
Van Winkle," the happy-go-lucky fellow, still 
stalks the Catskills, gun in hand. The death 
light of " Jack Welsh " may be seen on a sum- 



Auf Wiedersehen 3 

mer's nijs^ht off tlie coast of Pond Cove. 
*' Mother Crew's " evil spirit haunts Plymoutli, 
while " Ski|)i)er Ireson " floats off Marble 
Head in his ill-fated smack. 

With a cloud for a blanket the " Indian 
Witch " of the Catskills sits on her mountain 
peak sendino- forth fair weather and foul at her 
pleasure, while the pygmies distil their magic 
liquor in the valley below. 

*' Atlantis " lies fathoms deep in the blue 
waters of the Atlantic, and the '* Flying Dutch- 
man " haunts the South Seas. 

We have our Siegfried and our Thor, whom 
men call Washington and Franklin. Our 
" Hymer " splits rocks and levels mountains 
with his devil's eye, though we call him dyna- 
mite. 

Israel Putnam and Daniel Boone may yet live 
in history as the Theseus and Perseus of our 
heroic age. 

Certainly our country has her myths and her 
folk lore. 

In time America, too, will have her saga 
book. 

Yonder, Black Hawk, chief of the Sac, Fox, 
and Winnebago Indians, made his last stand, 
was defeated by General Scott, captured and 



4 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

carried to Washing-ton and other cities of the 
East, where he recognized the power of the na- 
tion to which he had come in contact. Return- 
ing to his people, he advised them that resist- 
ance was useless. The Indians then abandoned 
the disputed lands and retired into Iowa. 

Just north of Chicago we passed field after 
field yellow with the bloom of mustard. Call- 
ing the porter I asked him what was being grown 
yonder. He looked puzzled for a moment, then 
his face lighted up with the inspiration of a 
happy thought as he replied : 

" That, Madam, is dandelion." 

" O, thank you ; I suppose that they are being 
grown for the Chicag^o market? " said I, know- 
ing that dandelion greens with the buds in blos- 
som and full bloom are considered a delicacy 
in the city. 

" No, Madam," answered my porter wise, 
'' I don't think them fields is being cultivated 
at all." 

I forebore to point out to him the well kept 
fence and the marks of the plow along it, but 
brought my field glasses into play and discov- 
ered that the disputed fields had been sown to 
oats, but the oats were being smothered out by 
the mustard. 



Auf Wiedersehen 5 

Wisconsin is a 1)eantifnl state. Had the 
French government cuUivated the rich lands of 
the ^lississippi valley and developed its mineral 
resources as urged hy Joliet, Wisconsin might 
still be a French territory. But all his plans 
for colonization were rejected by the govern- 
ment he served. A map of this country over 
which Joliet traveled may be seen in the 
Archives de la Marine, Paris, France, to-day. 

The soil is light and farming in Wisconsin 
is along different lines from that of her sister 
state, Illinois. In every direction great dairy 
barns dot the landscape. Corn is grown almost 
entirely for fodder. The seasons here are too 
short to mature it properly. In planting corn 
for fodder it is sown much as are wheat and 
oats. 

The principal crops of this great state are 
flax, oats, hops, and I might add ice. Large 
ice houses are seen on every side. Much of the 
country is yet wild. Acres of virgin prairie 
just now aglow with wild flowers, take me back 
to my childhood, when we spent whole days on 
the prairie. " Where the great warm heart of 
God beat down in the sunshine and up from the 
sod; " where Marguerites and black-eyed 
Susans nodded in the golden sunshine, and the 



6 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

thistle for very joy tossed off her purple bon- 
net. 

Here and there in northern Illinois and Wis- 
consin kettle holes mark the track of the glaciers 
that once flowed down from the great neve 
fields of Manitoba and the Hudson lake district. 

In traveling across Wisconsin one is re- 
minded of the time when witches, devils, magi- 
cians, and manitous held sway over the Indian 
mind. 

Milwaukee is a name of Indian origin, — 
Mahn-a-wau-kie, anglicized into Milwaukee — 
means in the language of the Winnebagoes, 
rich, beautiful land. 

According to an Indian legend the name comes 
from mahn-wau, a root of wonderful medicinal 
properties. The healing power of this root, 
found only in this locality, was so great that the 
Chippewas on Lake Superior would give a 
beaver skin for a finger length piece. 

The market place now stands on the site of a 
forest-clad hill, which had been consecrated to 
the Great Manitou. Here tomahawks were 
belted and knives were sheathed. Here the 
tribes of all the surrounding country met to 
hold the peace dance which preceded the relig- 
ious festival. At the close of the religious serv- 



Auf Wiedersehen 7 

ices each Indian carried away with him from 
the holy hiill a memento to worship as an amu- 
let. 

It was the greatest wish, the most passionate 
desire of every Indian to he huried at the foot 
of this hill on the hank of the Mahn-a-wau-kie. 

Recent investigation has shown that Wiscon- 
sin was the dwelling place of strange tribes 
long before the advent of the Indian. 

The Dells of the Wisconsin river was a 
favorite resort of the Indian manitous. Yon- 
der is a chasm fifty feet wide, across which 
Black Hawk leaped when fleeing from the 
whiles. He surely had the aid of the nether 
world. 

In this beautiful region, hemmed in by rug- 
ged bowlder cliffs, lies a veritable Sleepy Hol- 
low. In a dense wood back of the cliff stands 
the mythical '' lost cabin." Many have lost 
their way searching for it. The strange thing 
about it is that they who have once found it 
are never able to find it again. Weird stories 
are told about it. Its logs are old and strange, 
different from the wood of the dark old forest 
in which it stands. There are stories afloat that 
it is haunted by its former inhabitants, who 
move it about from place to place. 



8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

At the foot of this ru^^ed cliff lies Devil's 
lake. At the head of this fathomless body of 
water is a mound built in the form of an eagle 
with wings outspread. Here, no doubt, lies 
buried a great chief. Nothing is left in Wis- 
consin to-day of the Indian but footprints, — 
mounds, graves, legends and myths. 

At Devil's Lake lived a manitou of wonder- 
ful power. This lake fills the crater of an ex- 
tinct volcano. Now this manitou, so the tale 
runs, piled up those heavy blocks of stone, 
which form the Devil's Doorway. He also 
set up Black Monument and Pedestaled Bowl- 
der for thrones where he might sit and view 
the landscape o'er when on his visits to the 
earth. These visits have ceased, since the white 
man possesses the country. One day this won- 
derful manitou aimed a dart at a bad Indian 
and missing him, cleft a huge rock in twain, 
which is now known as Cleft Rock. At night, 
long ago, he might have been seen sitting on 
one of his thrones or peeping out of the Devil's 
Doorway watching the dance of the frost fairies 
or gazing at the aurora flaming through the 
night. 

Every night at midnight Gitche Manitou ap- 
pears in the middle of the lake. 




JUNCTION OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND BLACK RIVERS. 



Auf Wiedersehen 9 

In days gone by a strange, wild creature, 
known as the Red Dwarf, roamed the region of 
the great lakes, haunting alike the lives of red 
man and white. 

The snake god, the stone god, the witch of 
pictured rocks, were-wolves and wizards held 
sway in that charmed region where San Souci, 
Jean Beaugrand's famous horse, despite his 
hundred years, leaped wall of fort and stockade 
at pleasure. 

At LaCrosse w^e crossed Black river into 
Minnesota and shortly after crossed the Missis- 
sippi. LaCrosse, although French, originally, 
means a game played by the Indian maidens 
on the ice. The heights on either side of the 
Mississippi river remind one of the Catskills 
along the Hudson. Indeed, the scenery is very 
similar. You easily imagine yonder cliffs to be 
the palisades. Here, a spur of the Catskills 
range and the little valley between might be 
Sleepy Hollow. But you miss the historic 
places — Washington's headquarters, Tarry- 
town, W^est Point and others. Like forces pro- 
duce like results. When you have seen the 
Hudson river and its environs you have seen 
the upper Mississippi. 

St. Paul and Minneapolis form the commer- 



lo A Pacific Coast Vacation 

cial center of the North. Although the ground 
freezes from fifteen to sixteen feet, the concrete 
sidewalks and pavements show no effect of the 
touch of Jack Frost's icy fingers. The street- 
cars here are larger and heavier than any I 
have ever seen. Then, too, they have large 
wheels, and that sets them up so high. This is 
on account of the snow, which lasts from 
Thanksgiving to Easter, good sleighing all the 
time. 

The French and Indian have left to this re- 
gion a nomenclature peculiarly its own. There 
is Bear street and White Bear street. In the 
shop windows are displayed headgear marked 
Black Bear, White Bear and Red Cloud. There 
are on sale Indian dolls, Indian slippers, French 
soldier dolls. Red Indian tobacco, showing 
the influence still existing of the two peoples. 
One sees many French faces and hears that 
language quite often on the streets and in the 
cars. 

The falls of St. Anthony are at the foot of 
Fifth street in Minneapolis. The water does 
not come leaping over, but pours over easily 
and smoothly in one solid sheet. On either bank 
of the river are located the largest flouring 
mills in the world. Not a drop of the old Mis- 




FALLS OF SAL\'I ANTHONY. 



Auf Wiedersehen 1 1 

sissippi that comes sweeping- over the fahs but 
pays tril)iite in furnishing power for these mills. 
Huge iron turbine wheels that twenty men 
could not lift are turned as easily as a child 
rolls a hoop. 

On the site of these mills long ago were 
camped the Dakotas. They had just come 
down from another village where one of the 
men had married another wiie and brought 
her along. The woman was stronger than the 
savage in wife number one, and when the In- 
dians broke camp and packed up their canoes 
and goods for the journey to the foot of the 
falls, the forsaken wife, taking her child, 
leaped into a canoe and rowed with a steady 
hand down stream toward the falls. Her 
husband saw her and called to her, but she 
seemed not to hear him and she did not even 
turn her head when his comrades joined him 
in his cries. On swept the boat, while the 
broken-hearted wife sang her death-song. 
Presently the falls were reached. The boat 
trembled for a moment, then turning sideways, 
was dashed to pieces on the rocks below. 

Minnesota was the land of Gitche Manitou 
the jMighty and Mudjekeewis. Mackinack was 
the home of Hiawatha and old Nokomis. There 



12 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Gitche Manitou made Adam and Eve and 
placed them in the Indian Garden of Eden. One 
day Manitou or Great God made a turtle and 
dropped it into Lake Huron. When it came up 
with a mouth full of mud, Manitou took the 
mud and made the island of Mackinack. 

As we steamed up the Mississippi to the falls 
of Minnehaha we had a o-ood view of the bank 
swallow^s in their homes in the sandstone 
banks along the river. The action of the air 
on sandstone hardens a very thin crust on 
the surface, and when this is scraped off one can 
easily dig into the bank. The swallows are 
geologists enough to know this and hundreds 
of them have dug holes in the perpendicular 
walls. Here the chattering, noisy little cave- 
dwellers fly in and out all day long, flying up 
over the cliff's and away in search of food or 
resting in the shru1)bery which grows in the 
water near by. It is a pretty sight to see the 
happy little fellows skim the water. It makes 
you wish that you, too, had wings. 

At the entrance of Minnehaha park we were 
greeted by a merry wood thrush, whose voice 
is melodious beyond description. There he sat 
on a swaggy limb not ten feet from us. We 
were familiar with his biography and recog- 




FALLS OF MINNEHAHA. 



Auf Wiedersehen i 3 

nized him l^y his brown and white speckled coat. 
We advanced cautiously. We had come six 
hundred miles to see him and I think he knew it, 
too, for when we were so near that we could 
have taken him in our hands he recognized our 
presence by nodding his graceful head first this 
way, then that, and sang on. We spent some 
ten minutes with him, then '" bon voyage " he 
sang out as we passed on. 

Three miles above Minneapolis are the beau- 
tiful falls of Minnehaha, Laughing Water. 
These falls are beautiful beyond the power of 
my pen to describe. The water does not pour 
over, but comes leaping and dancing, like one 
great shower of diamonds, pearls, sapphires and 
rubies. The vast sheet of water sixty-five feet 
high reminds one of a bridal veil decked with 
gems and sprinkled with diamond dust. 

" Where the falls of Minnehaha 
Flash and gleam among the oak trees, 
Laugh and leap into the valley.'' 

It was here that Hiawatha came courting the 
lovely maiden Minnehaha. The falls are sur- 
rounded by a government park. Hurrying along 
through glen and dale, looking for the falls, 
we met a party of young ladies who were hav- 
ing a picnic in the park. 



14 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

I accosted one of them, " Beg- pardon, Made- 
moiselle, can you tell me where to find the 
falls?" 

She looked astonished for a moment. " The 
falls of what? " 

" The falls of Minnehaha." 

*' O, I don't know; never heard of her," re- 
plied my maiden fair as she turned and tripped 
away. 

It has always seemed so strange to me that 
people living near places of interest are often- 
times ignorant of the fact. 

We next met a youth of some fourteen sum- 
mers, who knew the history of St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis and their environs. He could tell you all 
about the big mills, the soldiers, the barracks 
and old Fort Snelling. He knew the story of 
Minnehaha, too; had been to the falls hundreds 
of times, and knew the Song of Hiawatha as 
he knew his alphabet. Gitche Manitou had but 
to set his foot on the earth and a mighty river 
fiowed from his tracks. Mudjekeewis was a 
great w^arrior, but Hiawatha was his hero. It 
was with genuine regret that we bade good-by 
to this interesting youth. 

Our next visit was to old Fort Snelling, three 
miles out from St. Paul. This fort was built 




OLD FORT SNELLING. 



Auf Wiedersehen 15 

in 1820. It is round, two stories high and is 
constructed of stone. The old fort, of course, 
is not used now. The regular soldiers stationed 
here are located in delightful quarters. The 
barracks are just beyond the old fort. The 
hospital is a large, commodious building of 
stone. The parade field is a delightful bit of 
rolling prairie. The barracks are quite deserted 
now, most of the regiment being in the Philip- 
pines. Only a small detachment of twenty-five 
troops remains to take care of the property. 
Fort Snelling was the rendezvous of the Chip- 
pewas and the Sioux in the old days of Indian 
occupation. 

While the two tribes smoked the pipe of 
peace and made protestations of friendship they 
might not intermarry. 

At one of these meetings a Sioux brave won 
the heart of a Chippewa maiden. Their love 
they kept a secret, but when the tribes met again 
at old Fort Snelling a quarrel arose among the 
voung warriors which resulted in the death of 
a Sioux. 

The Sioux fell upon the Chippewas with the 
cry of extermination. 

In the midst of battle lover and loved one 
met, but for a moment. They were swept 



1 6 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

apart and the young warrior knew that the fair 
maiden Hved only in the land of shadows. 

There dwells in the river at the falls of Saint 
Anthony a dusky Undine. She was once a 
mermaid living in a placid lake, longing for a 
soul which the good Manitou finally promised 
her upon her marriage with a mortal. The 
mortal appeared one day in the form of 
a handsome Ottawa hrave, and to him 
the beautiful mermaid told her tale of 
woe. The tw(^ were wed. The mermaid 
received her soul and the form of a human, but 
her new relatives disliked her. They quarreled 
over her and at last the Ottawas and the Adir- 
ondacks fought over her, and threw her into 
the river. There she lives to this day, thank- 
fully giving up her soul for the peace and quiet 
of a mermaid's life. 

This is the home of the pine and the birch. 
The white melilotus grows rank in the byways 
of Minneapolis. 

The horse may not have to go, but the bicycle 
has surely come to stay. A unique figure on the 
streets of St. Paul is a window washer, black 
as the ace of spades, mounted on a wheel. Rags 
of all sorts and conditions hang from his 
pockets. He carries his brushes aloft a la 




ROADWAY, SOLDIER'S BARRACKS, hORT SXELLING. 



Auf Wiedersehen 17 

" Sancho Panza." He rides up to the curb- 
stone, dismounts, leans his steed against the 
curb, washes his windows and rides away at a 
pace that would make " Don Quixote's sleepy 
squire open his eyes in amazement. 

A beautiful morning in June finds us aboard 
the Great Northern Flyer, bound for the Pacific 
coast. We were soon u]) on the river bluffs. 
Here is some fine farming land, the only draw- 
back being the lack of well water. The geo- 
logical formation is entirely different from 
that of Indiana and Illinois, where water may 
be had on the bluffs as easily as lower down 
toward the riverbed. Here the underground 
water current lies on a level with the bed of the 
river and a well must go down five or six hun- 
dred feet through the bluff before water is ob- 
tained. 

Our route here follows the Mississippi, which 
in places is jammed with rafts of logs on their 
way down to the saw mills. Each log bears 
the owner's mark. One sees many logs, big 
fellows worth ten or fifteen dollars, which have 
slipped from their rafts and like independent 
boys, get lost in all sorts of ])laces. 

George ]\Ionte was an Indian lumberman of 
tin north. He worked at a chute where the logs 



1 8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

were floated down to the river and held back by 
a gate until it was time to send them through 
en masse. When all was ready the foreman or- 
dered the log drivers to open the gate. One 
chilly night the order came to open the gate. 
The night was dark and the men drew lots to 
see who should attempt the dangerous feat. 
Monte drew what was to him the fatal slip. 
Without a word he opened the door and 
passed cut into the night. The jam was broken 
and the logs passed through, but hours passed 
and Monte failed to return. Then his com- 
panions went in search of him. Investigation 
showed that the big gate which sank by its own 
weight \vhen the pins had been removed, was 
held by some obstruction. The object was re- 
moved with long spike-poles and proved to be 
the mangled body of Monte. The chute was 
soon abandoned, for every night at midnight 
his ghost walks the banks. His moans can be 
distinctly heard above the swish and lap of the 

water. 

On the Coteau des Prairies (side of the 
prairies) in Minnesota, pipe-stone, a smooth 
clay, from which hundreds of Indians have cut 
their pipes, forms a wall two miles long and 
thirty feet high. In front of the wall lie five big 



Auf Wiedersehen 19 

bowlders (lr()i)i)C(l tliere l)y the g-laciers. Under 
tliese l)()\v]ders lies the spirit of a s(iua\v, which 
must he propitiated l)efore the stone is cut. This 
quarry was neutral ground for all the tribes. 
Here knives were sheathed and tomahawks 
belted. To this place came the Great Spirit 
to kill and eat the buffalo of the prairies. The 
thunder bird had her nest here and the clashing 
of the iron wings of her young brood created 
the storms. Once upon a time, when a snake 
crawled into the nest to steal the young thun- 
derers, Alanitou, the Great Spirit, seized a piece 
of pipe stone and pressing it into the form of a 
man, hurled it at the snake. The clay man 
missed the snake and struck the ground. He 
turned to stone and there he stood for a thou- 
sand years. He grew- to manhood's stature 
and in time another shape, that of a woman 
grew beside him. One day the red pair wan- 
dered away over the plains. From this pair 
sprang all the red people. 

From St. Paul to Fargo not a stalk of corn 
was to be seen, but there was field after field of 
fine wheat. This part of Minnesota is much 
more thickly settled than immediately around 
St. Paul and Minneapolis. Morehead in Min- 
nesota and Fargo, across the line in Dakota, 



20 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

are thriving towns. The country here looks 
Hke Ilhnois. The lay of the land is the same 
and groves and houses dot the landscape. Here 
dwelt the Dakota trihes from which the states 
of Dakota and Minnesota take their names. 
Here came Hiawatha and his bride, Minnehaha, 
whom he won at St. Paul when the tribe was 
visiting that country, for Minnehaha was a Da- 
kota girl, yc^u remember. 

Hiawatha's fio^ht with his father began on 
the upper Mississippi and the bowlders found 
there were their missiles. Hiawatha fought 
against him for many long days before peace 
was declared between them. 

The evil Peace Father had slain one of Hia- 
watha's relatives. He engaged him in combat 
all the hot day long. They battled to no pur- 
pose, but the next day a woodpecker flew over- 
head and cried out, " Your enemy has but one 
vulnerable point ; shoot at his scalp-lock." Hia- 
watha did this and the Peace Father fell dead. 
Taking some of the blood on his finger the 
victor touched the woodpecker on the head and 
the red mark is seen on every woodpecker to 
this day. 

Dakota as well as Wisconsin has her Devil's 
Lake, about which hang many legends, but un- 



Auf Wiedersehen 21 

like that of Wisconsin the Great Si)irit, Gitche 
Maniton, does not a|)i)ear in the middle of it 
ever}- nis;lu at t\\el\e o'clock. 

Indians as well as whites helieve in a coming 
Messiah. In 1890 a frenzy swei)t over the 
northwest, inspiring- the Indians to helieve that 
the Messiah, who was no less than Hiawatha 
himself, and who was to sweep the white people 
off the face of the earth, would soon arrive. Da- 
kota was the meetino' oi'ound of the trihes. Sit- 
ting Bull, a Sioux chief, told them in assembly 
that he had seen the wonderful Alessiah while 
hunting in the mountains. Tie told them that 
having lost his way, he followed a star 
which led him to a wonderful valley, 
where he saw throngs of chiefs long dead, as 
they appeared in a spirit dance. Christ was 
there, too, and showed him the nail wounds in 
his hands and feet and the place where the 
spear pierced his side. Then the old rogue re- 
turned to his people and tauo'ht them the ghost 
dance, which caused the whites so much trouble. 

Dakota is a beautiful state. The land along 
the route of the Great Northern railway lies 
more level than in Minnesota. The crops are 
looking well in this region. There seems to be 
but one drawback to farminghere and that is the 



22 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

famous Russian thistle imported a few years 
ago. The principal crops are oats, barley and 
wheat. Rye bread is plenty and good, too. 
Out there on the broad cheek of the Dakota 
prairie the weeds are holding high revelry. 
Some of the same old weeds we have at home 
and many which are new to the writer. Wild 
ducks build their nests in the tall grass of the 
ponds just as they did in Illinois thirty years 
ago. 

At Minot, Dakota, we set our watches to 
Mountain time, turning them back one hour. 
We arrived at Minot at ii :io p. m., remained 
fifteen minutes and left at 10:25. At 9:15 
o'clock the sun was just sinking in the west. 
It does not get dark here, only twilight. 
At 10 o'clock the moon came up and we bade 
good night to Saturday. 

Sunday we spent in the Bad Lands of Mon- 
tana. '' Hell with the fires out " is the popular 
name given to the Bad Lands in the wild, fear- 
less nomenclature of the west. It is an ancient 
sea bottom. The lower strata is clay and the 
one above it is sand. They are wild and rug- 
ged beyond description. The action of the air, 
wind and storm have worn them into towers, 
citadels and fantastic peaks. 



Auf Wiedersehen 23 

The highly colored scoria rocks crop out 
here and there, adding a beauty of their own. 
Summer and winter, long before the advent of 
the white man the coal mines in this region 
were burning. Looking down into the fiery 
furnace one may see the white-hot gl(nv of the 
C(ual and the heated rocks glowing with a white 
heat. Rattlesnakes wriggle through the short 
grass. Quails and grouse fly up and away. 

There is a banshee in the Bad Lands whose 
cries chill your blood if you happen to hear her, 
which I did not. She is most frequently seen 
on a hill south of Watch Dog Butte, in Dakota, 
her flowing hair and her long arms tossing in 
wild gestures, make a weird picture in the 
moonlight. Cattle will not remain near 
the butte and cowboys fear the banshee and 
her com])anion, a skeleton that walks 
about and haunts the camps in the vicinity. 
Leave a violin lying near and he will 
seize it and away, playing the most weird 
music, but you must not follow him, for he will 
lead you into pits and foot falls. The explana- 
tion of all this is the phosphorus found in this 
vicinity, which glows in the night air. 

Standing Rock agencv is the best known of 
our frontier posts. The rock from which the 



24 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

post takes its name is only about three feet high 
and two feet in width. This rock was once a 
beautiful Indian bride who starved herself to 
death upon her husband marrying a second 
wife. After her death the Great Manitou 
turned her to stone, and here she stands to this 
day. 

Glasgow, Montana, lies in the midst of the 
Sioux reservation. Like the Spartans of old, 
these warriors of the plains dwell in tents dur- 
ing a part of every year. Just beyond the 
town tepees now^ dot the landscape where for 
a brief space the red man forgets the things 
taught him by his white brother and resumes 
his old wild ways, but at the approach of winter 
he abandons his tent and returns to his log 
cabin and to civilization. 

The Indian costume is a mixture of savage 
and civilized dress, looking more like that of the 
Raggedy Man than any other. 

Blackfoot is a village in the heart of the 
Blackfeet reservation, lying just west of that 
of the Sioux. These people, like the ancient 
Greeks, reverence the butterfly. 

" Ah ! " exclaim these red children of nature 
when they see one of these Psyches of the prai- 
rie flitting from flower to flower over the green 



Auf Wiedersehen 25 

meadow, "ah, sceliini now. I Ic is .gathering the 
(h'eains which he wih l)rin^- to us in our sleep." 
If you see the sii^-n t'or the l)Uttert1y which is 
somethini;- like a nialtese cross ])ainte(l on a 
lodge, you will know that the owner was taught 
how to decorate his lodge, in a dream by an 
apunni, — l)utterfly. A Blackfeet woman em- 
broiders a butterfly on a piece of buckskin and 
ties it on her baby's head when she wishes to 
put it to sleep. Wrapped in their blankets the 
Indians stood about Blackfeet village as we 
came in reminding us of Longfellow's address 
to ''Driving Cloud:" 

" Wrapt in thy scarlet blanket, I see thee stalk through 

the ::ity's 
Narrow and populous street, as once by the margin of 

rivers 
Stalked those birds unknown which have left to us only 

their footprints. 
What in a few short years will remain of thy race but 

footprints ? 
How canst thou tread these streets, who hast trod the 

green turf of the prairies? 
How canst thou breathe this air who hast breathed the 

sweet air of the mountains?" 

When one has trod the velvety green turf of 
the prairies and breathed the sweet air of the 
mountains he is quite ready to sympathize with 
" Driving Cloud." 



26 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

The government schools for the Blackfeet 
Indians are located in a valley beyond Black- 
feet village. The schools are conducted ex- 
actly as our public schools are, only that the 
Blackfeet children must go to school ten months 
in the year. Think of that, boys and girls. 
During July and August these dusky redskins 
get a vacation, which they spend with their 
parents and for the time being return to the 
savage state. The agent told me they were al- 
ways quite wild upon their return to school 
after two months of hunting, fishing and liv- 
ing in tepees. 

Now and then a fine covey of quails or prai- 
rie chickens flies up and away. How glad they 
would make a sportsman's heart! 

With our glasses we see easily two hundred 
miles in this rarefied atmosphere. I discovered 
several coyotes running along a ledge in the 
Bad Lands that I could not see at all with my 
naked eye. The Sweet Grass mountains, sixty 
miles away on the Canadian line, loom up so 
plainly that they appear to be only two miles 
distant. With the aid of the glasses we could 
see the vegetation and rocks on the sides of the 
mountains quite plainly. 

The United States geological survey reports 



Auf Wiedersehen 



27 



Montana the best watered state in the Union. 
It has more laro^e rivers than all of the states 
west of the Mississippi combined. Milk river 
is five hundred miles long. This valley 
is one of the finest in Montana. Here irriga- 
tion is a perfect success. 

Here one sees the cowboy in all his pictur- 
esqueness. The saddle is your true seat of em- 
pire. Montana cattle bring a big price in the 
Chicago market. The top price paid in 1897 
was five dollars per hundredweight, and was 
paid to George Draggs for a shipment from 
Valley county. I would almost be willing to 
live in the Bad Lands if I might always have 
my table supplied with the juicy mountain beef 
which we have been eating since we arrived at 
St. Paul. 

This is a fine sheep as well as cattle country. 

Montana is not all sage brush, coyotes and 
rattlesnakes. 

Montana has according to the report of the 
secretary of the interior seventy million acres 
of untillable lands. A great portion oi this land 
can be reclaimed bv irrigation. 

We passed the Little Rockies sixty miles to 
the north (the distance looked to be only about 
two miles). The Bear Paw mcmntains are 



28 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

west of these. The Indians are very supersti- 
tious about the mountains. The great spirit, 
Manitou, they tell us, broke a hole through the 
floor of heaven with a rock and on the spot 
where it fell he threw down more rocks, snow 
and ice until the pile was so high that he could 
step from the summit into heaven. 

After the mountains were completed Mani- 
tou by running his hands over their rugged 
sides, forced up the forests. Then he plucked 
some leaves, blew his breath upon them and 
gave them a toss in the air and lo they sailed 
away in the breezy blue birds. His staff he 
turned into beasts and fishes. The earth be- 
came so beautiful he decided to live on it and 
starting a fire in Mt. Shasta he burned it out for 
a wigwam. 

An interesting part of life on the plains is 
the prairie dog and his town, the streets of 
which were not laid out by an engineer. Each 
dog selects the site of his home to suit his taste. 
The houses are about the size of a wagon wheel, 
almost perfectly round. As the train whirls 
by they sit on top of their houses looking much 
like soldiers standing guard. The dogs are 
three times as large as a gopher and of a pale 
straw color. As one walks toward them, down 



Auf Wiedersehen 29 

they go through the door, l)ut they are very cu- 
rious and presently back they come for another 
look. They are agile and graceful in move- 
ment. One handsome fellow lay on the pro- 
jecting sill of a house basking in the sun. We 
approached very near before he saw us. The 
Hies were annoying him. He shook his head 
and blinked his eyes at the flies, paying little 
attention to us. 

The wild flowers of Montana are as abundant 
and beautiful as those of the Alps, and more 
varied. Shooting stars greet the spring. 
Dandelions abound but do not reach full 
rounded perfection. The common blue lark- 
spur, however, revels in the cool air and warm 
sunshine. The little yellow violet which haunts 
the woods in the eastern states makes herself 
quite at home here. Blue bells nod and sway in 
the breeze, little ragged sun flowers turn their 
faces to the sun and mitreworts grow every- 
where. 

Along the shady streams wild currants flaunt 
their yellow flags while hydrangea, that queen 
of flowers, lends a shade to the violets blooming 
at her feet. Wild roses strew the ground with 
their delicate petals. Stately lilies, their pur- 
ple stamens contrasting strangely with their 



30 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

yellow petals, are abundant. The most dainty 
of this fair host is the golden saxifrage, and the 
most delicate gold thread, whose dainty, slender 
roots resemble nothing so much as threads of 
pure gold. 

At Havre, Montana, the Twenty-fourth 
United States Infantry came aboard. They 
are stalwart colored soldiers who will do credit 
to the uniforms they wear. They go to San 
Francisco, where they take transports for 
Manila. The good-bys at the station between 
the soldiers and their friends and relatives were 
pathetic indeed. Not one of the brave fellows 
but acted a soldier's part. 

Just as the train was pulling out a handsome 
girl ran along one of the cars to the window 
calling out to her sweetheart : 

'' O, lift me up till I kiss you again." 

We were glad when two big l:)lack hands 
came out through the open window and strong 
arms clasped the maiden for a moment. 

Every heart beat with the same thought; 
how many of these brave men would return 
from the deadly Philippines? 

We were proud of the Twenty-fourth when 
thev bade good-by to their friends at Havre; 
we were ])roud of them when they marched up 



Auf Wiedersehen 3 i 

the street at Spokane; we are ])r()ii(l of tlieni 
still. 

The officers of this rei^iment are white. 
Thev and tlicir wives came into onr car. 

The conversation was enlivened with tales 
of camp life. When a i)rivate, one officer was 
greatly annoyed hy the Indians, who came day 
after day to sit in the shade of his quarters, 
when having been on night duty he wanted to 
sleep. He bought a sun-glass and when they 
began talking he would sit down at the window 
and carelessly with the glass draw a focus on 
one of his tormentor's feet. A\^ith a yell 
worthy an Indian with the bad spirit after him 
he would l)ound away, followed by his com- 
panions. Soon they would return, when the 
glass would be brought into play with the 
same effect. .Vt last the Indians came to 
believe the house haunted and our captain was 
no longer troubled by his red brothers. 

After forty miles c^f mountain climbing we 
reached the summit of the Rockies. At nine 
o'clock we were still in the mountains and the 
sun was still shining. 

The smallest owl in the world has his home 
in these mountains. It is the Pigmy owl, but 
you must look sharply if you see him as he flits 



32 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

from limb to limb and hides in the dense fo- 
liage. The Rock}^ Mountain blue jay is not 
blue at all. His coat is a reddish brown, he 
sports a black-crested cap and has black bars on 
his wings like his Illinois brothers. 

Flowers, ice, snow and mountain torrents 
spread out in one grand panorama. Fleecy 
white clouds not much larger than one's hand 
float up and join larger ones at the summit of 
the peaks. There is no grander scene on earth 
than this range of snow-capped mountains 
spread out in mighty panorama, peak after peak 
and turret after turret glistening in the golden 
sunshine against skies as blue as those of 
Italy. 

" Come up into the mountains — come up into the blue, 
Oh, friend down in the valley, the way is clear for you ; 
The path is full of perils, and devious, but your feet 
May safely thread its windings, and reach to my re- 
treat. 
The mountains, oh, the mountains ! How all the am- 
bient air 
Bends like a benediction, and all the soul is prayer. 
How blithely on this summit the echoing wind's refrain 
Invites us to the mountains — God's eminent domain. 
Oh, soul below in the valley where aspirations rise 
No higher than the plunging of water fowl that flies, 
Come up into the mountains — come up into the blue; 
Leave weary leagues behind you the lowland's meaner 
view, 



Auf Wiedersehen 33 

The autumn's rotting verdure, the sapless grasses 

browned. 
Come where the snows are lilies that bloom the whole 

year round. 
Here in the subtle spirit of all these climbing hills, 
Man may achieve his dreaming, and be the thing he 

wills. —Joseph Dana Miller. 

When one has felt the inspiration which the 
air of the mountains gives, he feels that he may 
achieve his dreaming, may be the thing he 
wills. 

Ten o'clock found us going down the west- 
ern slope of the Rockies in the twilight. Day- 
light comes at two o'clock in the morning. All 
along the track over the mountains are sta- 
tioned track walkers, who live in little shacks. 
Before every train which passes over the road 
each walker goes over his section to see that all 
is well. 

All the Indians east of the Rockies located 
the Happy Hunting Ground west of the moun- 
tains and those west of the divide thought it 
was on the eastern side, and that every red 
man's soul would be carried over on a cob-web 
float. 

At Spokane we turned our watches back 
another hour. We are now in Pacific Coast 
time. 



CHAPTER II 

PLENTY OF ROOM 

There is plenty of room in the great North- 
west. For twenty-five years to come Horace 
Greeley's advice " Go west," will hold good. 
Charles Dickens once said that the typical 
American would hesitate to enter heaven unless 
assured that he could go farther west. " Go 
west." Surely these are words to conjure 
with. '' Go west," thrills the blood of youth 
and stirs the blood of age. 

The tide of immigration is turning this way. 
No matter what your trade or profession, there 
is room for you here. 

Agriculture, the supporting pillar in the tem- 
ple of wealth of any nation, stands in the 
front rank in Washington and Idaho, the soil 
being wonderfully productive. Stock raising, 
dairying and fruit farming are carried on with 
great success. But the great mining interest 
must not be forgotten. The annual rainfall 
varies from thirty-five to sixty inches. A 

34 




ENTERING THE CASCADE RANGE. 



Plenty of Room 35 

healthful climate meets one in almost every part 
of these o-reat states. Malaria is practically un- 
known. As to scenery one may have here the 
sul)lime gTandeur of Switzerland, the pictur- 
esqueness of the Rhine and the rugged heauty 
of Norway. 

The lava beds of eastern \\^ashington are 
wild and barren as to rocks, but the soil is very 
productive when irrigated. The lava is 
burned red in many places. Castle after castle 
with drawbridge, turrets and soldiers on 
guard, all of solid rock, greet the eye. Column 
after column stand hundreds of feet high. 

The Cascade mountains surpass the Rockies 
in grandeur and ruggedness of scenery. We 
crossed on the Switch Back. This is by 
'' tacking," as a sailor would say. Wq had 
three engines, mammoth Moguls, one for- 
ward, the other two in the rear. There are 
but two engines in the world larger than 
these. 

To explain more fully we went back and 
forth three times on the side of the mountain 
until we reached the summit, then down on the 
other side in the same manner. Going up we 
made snowballs with one hand and gathered 
flowers with the other, tiger lilies, perfect ones 



36 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

one and one-half inch from tip of petal to petal 
on tiny stalks five inches high. Blackberry 
vines run on the ground to the summit of the 
mountains. They creep along like strawberry 
vines. They are in bloom now and the berries 
will ripen in time. 

The snowfall last winter on the summit 
was one hundred and nine feet. Miles of snow- 
sheds are built over the road and men are kept 
constantly at work keeping the tracks clear of 
snow and bowlders. Five huge snow-plows are 
required, all working constantly to keep the 
sixty-six highest miles clear. The fall of snow 
for one day is often four feet. The Great 
Northern road is putting a tunnel through the 
mountains now, and will thus do away with the 
Switch Back. Eight thousand men work in the 
shafts night and day. They have been at work 
two years and expect to finish in 1901. 

For hours we traveled above the clouds and 
at other times we passed through them and 
were deluged with rain. Magnificent ferns 
grow everywhere on the mountain sides and 
towns and villages are to be seen frequently. 

Descending the mountains we came to the 
Flat Head valley, the scenery of which is wild 
and rugged enough to suit the taste of the most 




LAVA BEDS IN WASHINGTON. 



Plenty of Room 37 

imaginative Indian. The Flat Head river, a 
wild, raging, roaring torrent which sweeps 
everything before it as it comes leaping down 
the mountains, flows peacefully enough in the 
valley. Here water nymphs bathe in purple 
pools, yonder fairies and fauns dance on the 
green. 

On the trees we see such signs as " Smoke 
Red Cloud," " Chew Scalping Knife," " Drink 
Smoky Mountain Whisky," '' Chew Indian 
Hatchet," " Chew Tomahawk," " Drink White 
Bear." 

Wenatchee valley is famous for its irrigated 
fruit farms. A great variety of fruits is grown. 
Water is easily and cheaply obtained. Mission 
District is another fine fruit valley. The in- 
terest in agriculture is growing. Bees do well 
here. If you do not own all the land you want 
come west where it is cheap, good and plenty. 
The country is rapidly filling up with settlers. 
We passed fine wheat lands that stretch away 
across the country to Walla Walla. Men are 
now coming in to the wheat harvest just as in 
Illinois they come to cut broomcorn. But they 
are a better looking class of men. One sees no 
genuine tramp. There is no room for him 
here, there is too much work and he shuns 



38 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

such districts as one would a smallpox infected 
region. 

Seattle. — The first white men to explore 
this coast was an expedition under command 
of Juan de Fuca, a Greek pilot in the service of 
the Viceroy of Mexico. They explored the 
coast as far north as Vancouver island in 1592. 
Two hundred years later Captain George Van- 
couver, of the British navy, made extensive ex- 
plorations along this same coast. The first over- 
land expedition was commanded by Lewis and 
Clarke. The next was also a military expedi- 
tion and was commanded by John C. Fre- 
mont. The first people to settle in the country 
were the fur traders. The first mission was 
established by Dr. Marcus Whitman at Walla 
Walla in 1836. It was Dr. Whitman who rode 
to Washington, D. C, leaving here in Decem- 
ber, and informed the government of the con- 
spiracy of England to drive out all the Ameri- 
can settlers and seize the country. The first 
town was Tumwater, founded in 1845 by Mi- 
chael Simmons. These are some of the people 
who helped make Washington. 

General Sherman said, that God had done 
more for Seattle than for any other place in the 
world. It is destined to be the Chicago of the 




TANGLE OF WILD FERN L\ A WASHINGTON FOREST. 



Plenty of Room 39 

West. The largest saw-mills in the world are 
located here. The population is about eighty 
thousand and the increase is rapid. The Uni- 
versity of Washington, supported l)y the state, 
is grandly located in Seattle. The Federal 
government has a fine militarv station twelve 
miles out of the city. 

At every turn Indian names meet the eye. 
We steamed down the bay on the Skagit Chief 
to the city park, where we lunched at the Du- 
ramash restaurant. In the shop windows Uma- 
tilla hats, Black Eagle caps and Ancelline ties 
are offered for sale. 

Ancelline was an Indian ])rincess, daughter 
of Seattle. Seattle was chief of the Old Mru 
House Indians. These Indians had a big wig- 
wam in which the entire tribe lived during the 
winter. They called this the Old Man House 
and the tribe took its name from this house. 
There is but one family of these Indians left. 

The Indians on this side of the numntains 
have ne\'er received any support from the §*ov- 
ernment. They are much more industrious 
than their red brothers on the other side. There 
are many tribes here and many of them are 
cpiite well to do in the way of lands and monev. 
All talk English but prefer to speak Chinook. 



40 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Nokomis was an old Indian woman who did 
laundry work for a family in Seattle with 
whom I have become acquainted. Nokomis 
was exceeding'ly stubborn. She would permit 
no one to tell her how to wash for had she not 
washed in the creeks and rivers all her life? 
This old woman was somewhat deaf and when 
directions were being g-iven her she could not 
possibly hear and continued the work her own 
way. But when the mistress would say, " Come 
Nokomis, have some coppe (Chinook for cof- 
fee) and muck amuck (Chinook for ' some- 
thing to eat')," she never failed to hear, 
though this was often said in a low tone of voice 
to test Nokomis's ears. 

Wheat in this section easily goes fifty bushels 
per acre. The root crops, potatoes, turnips, on- 
ions, carrots, beets and parsnips yield enor- 
mously, with prices fair to good. The 
fruits are fine and prices good. Strawber- 
ries sell here now three quarts for twenty-five 
cents. The fruits o^o to Alaska, Canada and 
east to Montana and Minnesota. Stock and 
poultry do well here and supply eastern markets 
at good prices. Another industrial resource in 
which many are engaged is fishing. The cod, 
halibut, oyster, crab, shrimp, whale and fur 




MOUNT RAINIER. 



Plenty of Room 41 

seal yield fine profits. Canned fish ^o to the 
Eastern States, to Europe, Asia and Australia. 
The timher, coal, iron, orold and silver indus- 
tries are well rei)resented. 

There is one industry that is not represented 
here at all, and that is the window-screen indus- 
try. There is but one fly in Seattle; at any rate 
I have seen but one. Aleat markets and fruit 
markets stand open. The temperature has aver- 
aged sixty-two in the shade for several days. 
It is quite hot in the sun, however. 

If you are out of a fortune and would like to 
make one, come to Washington. 

Mount Ranier is the highest peak of the Cas- 
cade Range and the most beautiful. Though 
standing on American soil it bears an English 
name, that of Rear Admiral Ranier of the Eng- 
lish navy. The local name was for years Ta- 
coma, but in 1890 the United States board of 
geographic survey decided that Ranier must 
stand on all government maps. 

The people of Washington speak lovingly of 
this splendid peak which was smoking so 
grandly when the Pathfinder found his way 
into this country fifty years ago. 

From its summit eight glaciers radiate like 
the spokes of a wheel down from which flow 



42 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

as many rivers. Its ice caverns formed by 
sulpher vent holes in the crater, its steam jets, 
its moss draped pines, its dainty vines and 
hemlocks, its grassy vales, where wild flowers 
are swayed by the breath of the glaciers, its 
beautiful lilies, remind one of " Aladdin's " 
journey through the wonderful cave in search 
of the magic lamp. 

Here blows the heather and the shamrock. 

'' With a four-leafed clover, a double-leafed ash, and 

a greentopped seave, 
You may go before the queen's daughter without asking 

leave.'' 

There stands fair Daphne, changed to a laurel 
tree. 

In the legends of the Silash Indians Mount 
Ranier has always been held as a place of super- 
stitious regard. It was the refuge of the last 
man when the waters of Puget Sound swept in- 
land, drowning every living thing except one 
man. Chased by the waves, he reached the 
summit, where he was standing waist deep in 
the water when the Tamanous, the god of the 
mountain, commanded the waters to recede. 
Slowly they receded, but the man had turned 
to stone. The Tamanous broke loose one of his 
ribs and changing it to a woman, stood it by 



Plenty of Room 43 

his side, then waving- his ma.^ic wand oxer the 
two, bade them to awake. Joyfully this strange 
Adam and Eve passed down the mountain side, 
where they made their home on the forested 
slopes. These were the first parents of the 
Silash Indians. 

In the very center of the Cascade range 
stands another mountain of equal beauty. 
Mount St. Helens. 

Washington is the home of the genuine sea 
serpent. He makes his headquarters in Rock 
Lake, where he disports himself in the water, 
devouring every living thing that ventures into 
it or dares to come on the shore. Only a iew 
years ago he swallowed an entire band of In- 
dians. 

Expansion seems to be the law of our na- 
tional and commercial life. Beyond the placid 
Pacific are six hundred million people who 
want the things we produce. China and 
Japan furnish a market for our wheat. 
The crv now is for more ships to carry 
our produce to Asia, Australia, to islands 
of the Pacific and to Alaska, not to 
speak of the Philippines. Manila is the 
center of the great Asiatic ports, including those 
of British India and Australia. Our trade with 



44 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

the Orient is growing and Manila will make 
a fine distributing depot. These eastern coun- 
tries use annually over eighty-six million 
dollars' worth of cotton goods and nearly forty 
million dollars' worth of iron and steel 
manufactures. This we can produce in this 
country as cheap if not cheaper than in any 
other country. Seattle is the best point from 
which to export, as the route is shorter than 
from San Francisco. 

The battleship Iowa is in dry dock here. I 
should liked to have been a marine myself and 
have stood behind one of those big guns when 
Cervera left the harbor of Santiago. And now 
I'd like to train that same gun on the anti-ex- 
pansionist and send him to the bottom of the 
sea, there to sleep with the Spaniards and other 
useless things. Officers and marines alike are 
proud of their ship and delighted to explain the 
mechanism of the guns. 

We took a steamer over to Tacoma one 
morning, where we had the pleasure of seeing 
the North Pacific steamship Glenogle, which 
had just arrived from Japan, unload her cargo. 
She brought two thousand tons of tea, over 
two thousand pounds of rice, two thousand and 
twelve bails of matting, two hundred and 




STREET I\ TACO.MA, WASHINGTON. 



Plenty of Room 45 

eii^iity-six l)ails of straw l)rai(l, one luindred 
and thirty-nine cases of ])orcelain. two hundred 
and eighty-five i)ackages of curios, ilu-ee thou- 
sand packages of l)am1)oo ware, silk goods and 
a muhitude of small articles made the load. 
She had forty Japanese passengers for this port, 
and left forty-five at Victoria. 

The air was fragrant wnth the odor of roses 
and beautiful pinks. 

On the street we met a party of Indians in 
civilian dress, wearing closely cro])pe(l hair 
and moustaches. 

Tacoma pays ninety dollars per ton for cop- 
per ore from Alaska. 

Returning across the bay we met a flock of 
crowds on the flotsam and jetsam which 
floats down from the saw-mills. Their antics 
reminded me of a party of school boys playing 
tag. At the steamer's approach the leader gave 
a warning caw and they were up and away be- 
fore the steamer struck their floating play- 
ground and scattered it to the waves. 

At sunset the reflection of the sun-lit clouds 
on the waves and the fire and glow of the spark- 
ling water, now ruby red, changing to turquoise 
blues and emerald greens, make a scene delight- 
ful to the eve of one who k^ves the sea. 



CHAPTER III 

OFF FOR ALASKA 

" All aboard ! " At ten o'clock we steamed 
out of the harbor of Seattle and headed toward 
Alaska, the land of iceber^^s, glaciers and gold 
fields. Seattle sat as serenely on her terraced 
slopes as Rome on her seven hills. The sun 
shone bright and clear on the snow-capped peaks 
of the Cascades. Mt. Tacoma stood out bold 
and clear against the sun-lit sky. 

We steamed at full si:)eed down Admiralty 
Inlet. 

At noon we stop at Port Townsend, the port 
of entry for Puget sound. One sees at all these 
coast towns many Japanese, some dressed in 
nobby bicycle costumes, leading their wheels 
about the wharves, others wearing neat busi- 
ness suits and sporting canes. The less for- 
tunate almond-eyed people are here too, dressed 
in the garb of the laborer, b.ut it is to the 
former, the padrone, that the American em- 
ployer goes for contract labor. 
46 



Off for Alaska 



47 



In any case llic lal)orer ])ays his padrone a 
per cent, of his waives. 

It holds true the world over that " some must 
follow and some command, though all are made 
of clay," as Longfellow i)uts it. 

Wq are soon out on the ocean, where it is all 
sea and flood and long Pacific swell. 

All up and down the picturesque shores of 
Puget Sound live the Silash Indians, who to-day 
dress in American costumes and follow Ameri- 
can pursuits. One sees them on the streets of 
the cities and towns. The Silash, like the 
ancient Greeks, peoj^led the unseen world with 
spirits. Good and evil genii lived in the forest ; 
every spring had its Nereid and every tree its 
dryad. They helieved the Milky Way to be 
the path to heaven: so believed the ancient 
Greeks. 

One beautiful day there gleamed and danced 
in the sunshine a copper canoe of wonderful 
design. Down the sound it came. \Vhen the 
stranger whom it carried had landed he an- 
nounced that he had a message f(M- the red man, 
and sending for every Silash, he taught them 
the law of love. The Indian mind is slow to ad- 
just itself to new thought. Such ideas were new 
and strange to these children of nature. When 



48 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

this l)eautifitl stranger al)out whose head the 
sun was always shining, told them of the new, 
the eternal life in the world heyond, they list- 
ened with deep interest, but the savage was 
stronger than the man in the red skins and they 
dragged the stranger to a tree, where they 
nailed him fast with pegs in his hands and feet, 
torturing him as they did their victims of the 
devil dance. 

Then they danced around him until the 
strange light faded from his beautiful eyes. 
Slowly the radiant head dropped and life itself 
went out. A great storm arose that shook the 
earth to its very center. Great rocks came tear- 
ing down the mountain side. The sun hid his 
face for three days. 

They took the body down and laid it away. 
On the third day, when the sun burst forth, 
the dead man arose and resumed his teaching. 
The Indians now declared him a god and be- 
lieved in him. 

Year by year the Silash grew more gentle 
and less warlike, until of all Indians they be- 
came the most peaceful. My readers will read- 
ily see that this is a confused tale of the Christ. 

Another fantastic tale of this region is that 
of an Indian miser who dried salmon and jerked 



Off for Alaska 49 

meat, which he sold for haicjua. — tusk-shells, — 
the wampum of the Silash Indians. Like all 
misers, the more haiqua he got the more he 
wanted. 

One cold winter day he went hunting on the 
slopes of Mount Ranier. Every mountain has 
its Tamanous, to which travelers and hunters 
must pay homage. Now the miser, instead of 
paying devotion to the god of the mountain, 
only looked at the snow and sighed, '' Ah, if it 
were only haiqua." 

Up, up he went, and soon reached the rim 
of the volcano's crater, and hurrying down 
the inside of the crater he came to a 
rock in the form of a deer's head. With 
desperate energy he flung snow and gravel 
about. Presently he came to a smooth, flat 
rock; summoning all his strength, he lifted the 
rock. Beyond was a w^onderful cave wdiere 
were stored great quantities of the most beauti- 
ful haiqua his eyes had ever beheld. 

Winding string after string about his body, 
until he had all the haiqua he could carry, he 
climbed out of the crater and started 
down the mountain side. But the Taman- 
ous was angry. Wrapping himself in a st(M-m 
cloud, he pursued the miser, who buffeted 



50 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

by the wind and blinded by the snow and dark- 
ness, stumbled on, grasping his treasure. The 
unseen hands of the god clutched him and tore 
strand after strand from his neck. 

The storm lulled a moment, but returned with 
renewed energy; the thunder and lightning 
increased; again the unseen hands held him in 
a vice-like grasp. Strand after strand the 
angry god tore from the miser's grasp, until by 
the time he arrived at the timber line but one 
strand remained; this he flung aside and hur- 
ried on down the mountain. Not one shell re- 
mained to reward him for his perilous journey. 
Weary and foot-sore he fell fainting in the 
darkness. When he awoke his hair was 
white as the snow on the mountain's 
brow. He looked back at the snow-crowned 
peak with never a wish for the treasures 
of the Tamanous. When he arrived at his 
home an aged woman was there cooking fish. 
In her he recognized his wife, who had mourned 
him as dead for many long years. He dried 
salmon and jerked meat, which he sold for 
haiqua, but never again did he brave the Ta- 
manous of Mount Ranier. Thus ends the 
weird tale. of Puget Sound. 

Clearing this port, our course lay across the 




PARLIAMENT HUL'SE, \TCTURIA. 



Off for Alaska 51 

straits of Juan de Fuca, named for the 
Greek explorer before mentioned. The green 
slopes of the beautiful San Juan islands now 
came into view. 

We landed at Victoria, the capital of the 
province of British Columbia, at eight o'clock 
in the morning. The city was still wrapt in 
slumber. A cow placidly munching grass in 
the street, looked at us inquiringly. We met a 
dejected looking dog and presently a laborer 
going to his work. 

A handsome hotel occupies a commanding 
site, but the doors were closed. Not a store 
was open. The government buildings, naval 
station and museum are the only places of in- 
terest. 

The Island of Vancouver is composed of 
rock and sand. All along the shore are magnifi- 
cent sea weeds, ferns and club mosses, growing 
fast to the rocky side and the bottom of the sea. 
Many of these plants break loose and go float- 
ing about. 

Imagine a perfectly smooth, flexible parsnip, 
from twenty to fifty feet long, with leaves of the 
same length like those of the horse radish in 
form, but the color of sapless, water-soaked 
grasses, and you have a kelp. Coming toward 



52 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

you head on, the lono- leaves floating back under 
it, you have a miniature man-of-war. 

The fortifications for the protection of the 
harbor are submerged. You would never sus- 
pect that below that innocent looking daisy 
covered surface great guns were ready at a 
moment's notice to blow you and your good 
ship to atoms should her actions proclaim her 
an enemy. 

Farther up the coast Exquimalt, the most 
formidable fortress on the American Continent, 
occupies a commanding site. 

We were glad to retrace our steps to the 
steamer and shake from off our feet the dust of 
that sleepy old town, which never felt a quiver 
when '' Freedom from her mountain height un- 
furled her standard to the air," and shake ofif 
too that strange feeling which possesses one 
when treading a foreign shore. 

All day long Mount Baker of the Cascade 
range has stood like an old sentinel, white and 
hoary, to point us on our way. 

Fair Haven and New Whatcomb, the termi- 
nus of the Great Northern railway for pas- 
senger traffic, are delightfully located on the 
coast. These towns are growing ra])idly. The 
population is now twelve hundred. The largest 




GORGE OF HOMATHCO. 



Off for Alaska 



53 



shingle mill in the world is loeated here. It 
turns out half a million shingles every ten 
hours. The saw-mill turns out lumber enough 
every day to build five ten-room houses, while 
a tin can factory turns out a half million cans 
a day. 

In time Fair Haven and New Whatcomb will 
be two of the most beautiful towns in Washing- 
ton. The streets are broad. Green lawns sur- 
round handsome homes and pretty cottages. 

At noon we passed the forty-ninth parallel, 
the boundary line between the United States 
and the British possessions. What a vast ex- 
panse of territory had been ours had we adhered 
to our determination to maintain the fifty- 
fourth parallel. '' Fifty-four, forty or fight," 
we said, but gave it u]) without a blow. 

Forty miles across from Vancouver lies the 
busy collier town of Nanaimo. The Indians 
discovered the coal fifty years ago. On the 
knoll near the coal wharves, there is a beauti- 
ful grove of madronas. In the surrounding 
forest gigantic ferns and strange wild flowers 
grow in great profusion. Berries are plentiful 
and game abundant. 

At Cape Mudge we bid farewell to the Silash 
tribes. Cape Mudge potlatches are famous for 



54 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

their extravagance. In 1888 a neighboring 
tribe was worth nearly five hundred thousand 
dollars. The British Columbia legislature pro- 
hibited potlatches and in one year their wealth 
decreased four-fifths. The prohibition of pot- 
latches quenched their desire to accumulate 
property. 

The wild gorge of Homathco is the result of 
the relentless glaciers. 

In Jervis Inlet is a great tidal rapid, the roar 
of which can be heard for miles. It is consid- 
ered the equal of the famous Malstrom and 
Salstrom of Norway. 

At Point Robert we pass the last light house 
on the American coast. The stars and stripes 
floated from the flag staff. With a dash and a 
roar the white crested waves tumbled on the 
beach. With a last farewell to Old Glory, we 
steam ahead and for six hundred miles plow the 
British main. 

The scenery becomes more wild, savage, 
grand and awful. Snow-clad mountains guard 
the waterway on either side. Such Oh's and 
Ah's when some scene of more than usual 
grandeur bursts upon our view. A canoe shoots 
out from yonder overhanging ledge. The 




LIGHT housp:, point robp:rt. 



Off for Alaska 55 

glasses reveal the occupants to be four Indians 
out on a fishing expedition. 

Nearly every one of our three hundred pas- 
sengers was interested in the first whale sighted. 
'' O yonder he goes, a whale ; " " O, see him 
spout;" ''Now look, look!" ''Ah, down he 
goes." Then everyone questions everyone else. 
" Did you see the whale? " " Did you see our 
whale ? " " O^we had whales on our side of the 
boat," and adds some one, " They were per- 
forming whales, too." Then the gong sounds 
for dinner and the whale is forgotten in the dis- 
cussion of the menu. 

Many of our passengers are bound for Daw- 
son City, Juneau and other Alaskan points. 
One hears much discussion of the dollar, not 
the common American dollar, but the Alaskan 
dollar, which seems to be more precious as it is 
more difficult to obtain. 

Here are young men bound for the frozen 
field of gold who could carry a message to 
Garcia and never once ask, " Where is he 
' at? ' " " Who is he? " or " Why do you want 
to send the message, anyway?" Young men 
with backbone, muscle and brains, who would 
succeed in almost any field. 



56 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

From Queen Charlotte's sound to Cape Cal- 
vert we were out on the Pacific. Old Neptune 
tossed us about pretty much as he liked, al- 
though Captain Wallace, who, by the way, is a 
genial gentleman and a charming host, assured 
us that we had a smooth passage across this arm 
of the old ocean. Many suffered from mal de 
mer. 

Wrapped in furs and rugs, we sit on deck, 
enjoying the panorama of sea and sky. Sun-lit 
mountains, white with the snows of a thousand 
years and green-clad foot hills covered with 
pines as thick as the weeds on a common. Here 
and there in a w^ild, dreary nook the glasses re- 
vealed an Indian trapper's cabin. Here he lives 
and hunts and fishes. When he has a sufficient 
number of skins he loads his canoe and skims 
across the water, it may be eighty or a hun- 
dred miles, to a town, where he trades his furs 
and fish for sugar, coffee, tea, and the many 
things which he has learned to eat from his 
white brother. He is very fond of tea and rum. 
He does not bury his dead, but wraps them in 
their blankets and lays them on the top of the 
ground, that they may the more easily find 
their way to the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Then he builds a tight board fence five 




FJORDS OF ALASKA. 



Off for Alaska 57 

or six feet high about the lonely grave 
and covers it tightly over the top to 
keep out the wild animals which roam 
the mountain sides. A tall staff rises from the 
grave and a white cloth floats from its pinnacle. 
We sighted one of these lonely graves on the 
top of a small island on our second day out, and 
were reminded of that other lonely grave in the 
vale of the Land of Moab. 

Bella Bella is an Indian town located on 
Hunter island. The houses are all two-story 
and nicely painted. There is nothing in the 
aspect of the town to indicate that it is other 
than a white man's town, though the Indians 
who reside here were once the most savage on 
the coast. On a smaller island near by is a ceme- 
tery. Small, one-roomed houses are the vaults 
in which the bodies are placed after being wrap- 
ped in blankets. Here we saw the first grave 
stones. They stand in front of these vaults 
and are higher. On them are carved the owner's 
name and his exploits in hunting or war in 
picture language. 

The Silash Indians are very gentle and kind. 
If you are hungrv they will di\'ide their last 
crust with you. If vou are cold they will give 
you their last blanket. They wear civilized 



58 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

dress, fish and hunt and are quite prosperous. 
Many hops are grown in the State of Washing- 
ton and in the fah these Indians go down in 
their canoes to pick hops. Thev are preferred 
to white pickers, because of their industry and 
honesty. 

Saturday night we crossed " Fifty-four forty 
or fight " and Sunday morning found us in 
Alaska. 




FISHING HAMLET OF KETCHIKAN. 



CHAPTER IV 

FIRST VIEWS 

We visited the Indian village of Kitchikan. 
The Episcopalians have a mission at this place. 
The teacher is an able young woman. A young 
lady, a handsome half-breed Indian girl, came 
upon the wharf to meet someone who came on 
the boat. Her carriage, language and manner 
were those of a lady. We landed some freight 
at this point. The freight agent was a half- 
breed Indian, quite good looking and a gentle- 
man. 

New Metlakahtla is a most attractive village 
on the Annette Islands. 

The Metlakahtlans are the most progressive 
race in Alaska. Mr. Duncan visited the United 
States in 1887, enlisting aid for the Indians. 
Henry Ward Beecher and Phillips Brooks be- 
came champions of his cause. 

The government at Washington assured Mr. 
Duncan that his people would be protected in 
any lands which they might select in Alaska. 

5Q 



6o A Pacific Coast Vacation 

In the spring of 1887 four hundred Metla- 
kahtlans crossed to the Annette Islands. 

These enterprising people print their own 
newspaper. They have a photographer. The 
silversmiths, woodcarvers and bark weavers do 
a large business on tourist days. 

The salmon cannery ships from six to eight 
thousand cases a yesLV. There is a government 
school and a boarding school for girls. On 
steamer days the Indian band plays on a plat- 
form built on the tall stump of a cedar. 

These people, all Christians, have all sub- 
scribed and faithfully live up to a code of rules, 
called the Declaration of Residents. 

The inhabitants are greatly disturbed over 
the discovery of gold on these islands. The 
white man discovered the gold and now he 
wants the islands. Will the government keep 
faith with the Metlakahtlans ? 

Now let me tell the boys and girls what our 
vessel has down in her hold. Our boat, The 
Queen, is three hundred and fifty feet long and 
draws twenty-five feet of water, so vou see she 
has a big hold down below her decks. There 
are twenty big steers going to Juneau to be 
made into beef; two big gray horses go- 
ing to Dawson to work about the mines 



First Views 6i 

in the Klondike and when winter comes to l^e 
killed and dried for meat for dogs, as there will 
he no feed for the horses in the Klondike when 
winter sets in and the grass dies. A sad fate. 
They are gentle horses, poking their noses into 
3^onr hand as you pass for an apple, peach or bit 
of grain. There are five hundred chickens down 
there, too, going to different points in Alaska. 
Two little Esquimaux pups, worth one hundred 
dollars each, are also here. Their mother, 
which was killed by the electric cars at Seattle 
the day before we sailed, cost four hundred 
dollars. The little curly-haired fellows play 
and tumble al)out very much like kittens, then 
suddenly they remember their mother and set 
up such a pitiful wail. 

There is also a big, black Husky aboard. He 
is a cross between an Indian (not an Esqui- 
maux) dog and a wolf. He is a big, heavy 
fellow, large of head, strong of limb and feet 
widened in muscular development wrought in 
his race by generations of hard service in this 
rugged climate. He is valued at three hundred 
and fifty dollars. He will pull three hundred 
pounds and travel forty miles a day over ice 
and snow, being fed but once a day on dried 
fish. 



62 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

The most curious and by far the handsomest 
dog aboard is a Malamute. He is a beautiful 
dog. His furry coat is heavy and his fine ears 
stand erect. For actions, manners and affection 
for his master he is a fine specimen of the canine 
tribe. His walk is somewhat of a stride like 
that of the bear. 

His owner, who lives in Chicago, is aboard. 
He paid three hundred dollars for the dog and 
took him home, bnit it is too warm for him in 
Chicago, so he is taking him back to Alaska. 

There are many cases of oranges, lemons, 
peaches, apples, apricots and plums and tons of 
groceries of all sorts for Skagway, Dawson, 
Junea, Sitka and other Alaskan points. Also 
many pounds of dressed beef, mutton, flour, 
cornmeal, oatmeal and canned goods. There 
are one thousand cases of oil, lots of dry goods 
and many miners' outfits. So you see there is 
quite a traffic up and down this coast. 

As we steam steadily on toward the home of 
Hoder, the stormy old god of winter, the air 
grows colder, the scenerv more wild and 
strange. Snowclad moiuitains, sun-lit clouds 
resting on their peaks and veiling their sides, 
blue sky and sparkling water make a scene 
which may be imagined but not described. 



First Views 63 

Alaska is llie ahorio-iiial name and means 
"great country." It was at tlic re(|uest of 
Charles Sumner that the orio-inal name was re- 
tained. Seven milhon two hnnchxcl tliousand 
dollars for a field of stony mountain, icebergs 
and glaciers ! Had Seward gone mad ? Ah, no. 
He budded wiser than he knew. Alaska is 
nine times the size of the New England States 
and cost less than one-half cent per acre. 

The northwest coast of Alaska was discov- 
ered and explored by a Russian expedition un- 
der Behring, in 1741. Russian settlements 
were made and the fur trade developed. 

The climate is no colder than at St. Peters- 
burg and many other parts of Russia. The 
\\3.vm Japan current sweeps the coast and tem- 
pers the climate. Sitka is only three miles north 
of Balmoral, Scotland. The isothermal line 
running through Sitka runs through Rich- 
mond, Va., giving 1)oth points the same temper- 
ature. The average summer temperature is 
fifty-two degrees and the average winter 
weather thirt3^-one degrees above zero. 

The average rainfall at this point is eighty- 
two inches. Native grasses and l^erries grow 
plentifully in the valleys. The chief wealth of 
the country lies in its forests, fish, fur-bearine 



64 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

animals and mines. The forest consists of yel- 
low pine, spruce, larch, fir of g-reat size, cypress 
and hemlock. The wild animals include the elk, 
deer and bear. The fur-bearin^- animals are the 
fox, wolf, beaver, ermine, otter and squirrel. 
Fur-bearing seals inhabit the waters along the 
coast. Salmon abound in the rivers. 

It is one of the secrets of the rebellion that 
the large sum paid to Russia for Alaska was to 
compensate her for the presence of her war- 
ships in our harbor during the early days of the 
Civil War, thus helping to prevent English in- 
terference. 

Fort Wrangel is delightfully located on the 
green slopes of the mountains. It was once a 
Russian military post and takes its name from 
the Russian governor of Alaska, Baron 
Wrangel. 

Here are some fine totem poles. Totemism 
is a species of heraldry. Their whales, frogs, 
crows, and wolves are no more difiicult to un- 
derstand than the dragons, griffins, and fleur- 
de-lis of European heraldry. The totem pole 
of the Alaskan Indian is his crest, his monu- 
ment. The totem is his clan name, his god. 
He is a crow, a raven, an eagle, a bear, a whale, 
or a wolf. It is the old story of Beauty and the 



First Views 65 

Beast. The l)eautiful raven maiden may live 
happily with her hear hushand. 

Every Indian claims kinship with three 
totems. The clan totem is the animal from 
which the clan descended. There is a totem 
common to all the women of the clan. The 
men of the clan have a totem and each indi- 
vidual when he or she arrives at manhood or 
womanhood chooses a totem sacred to him or 
herself. This totem is his guardian angel and 
protects him from danger and harm. The 
Alaskan Indian helieves the eagle to he the 
American man's totem and the lion and the 
unicorn the two totems of the Englishman. . 

The civilized races of antiquity all passed 
through the totem period. Our Indians all had 
their totems as their names indicate, Blackfeet, 
Crow and Sioux. Totems are common to all 
savage races, but the Alaskan Indian is the only 
North American who erects a monument to his 
totem. 

While the totem protects the Indian the In- 
dian is in duty bound to protect his totem. He 
may neither kill nor eat his own totem, but he 
may with impunity kill the god of another. If 
you kill his totem he will be grieved and sor- 
rowfully ask, "Why you kill him, my brother?" 



66 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

These people were evolutionists long before 
Darwin. There are no monkeys, however, 
amono- the totems of the Alaskan Indians, 

When an Indian marries he takes his wife's 
name, the name of her clan totem. The children, 
too, belong- to the mother's totem, and, of 
course, take her name. The wife is the head 
of the family, managino^ it and transacting all 
the business. 

These Indians and all the Indians of 
southern Alaska are Tlingits. Tlingit means 
people. There are many traditions among 
them of a supernatural origin ; one to the effect 
that the crow in whom dwelt the Great Spirit 
lived on the Nass River, where he turned two 
blades of grass into a man and a woman. This 
was the first pair from whom sprang all 
Tlingits. They have tales of a migration from 
the southeast, the Mars River country. Their 
propitiation of evil spirits, their shamanism and 
their belief in the transmigration of souls, all 
point to Asiatic origin, yet there is no tradition 
among them of any such origin. Once, many 
thousands of snows ago, a Tlingit stole the sun 
and hid it, then nearlv all the people died, but 
the crow found it and placed it in the sky again. 
After this the tribe increased. 




CHIEF SHAKE'S HOUSE, FORT WRAxNGLE. 



First Views 67 

The Tlingit idea of justice is something of a 
noveUy. The code, however, is short; an eye 
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, is always 
strictly demanded. A Tlingit once shot at a 
decoy duck, but he made the owner pay for the 
shot used. A young Indian stole a rifle and ac- 
cidentally killed himself with it. His relatives 
made the owner pay for the dead thief. If a 
patient dies under a doctor's care he pays for 
him. 

Before the advent of the white man shaman- 
ism held sway. When a Tlingit fell ill he sent 
for his medicine man, who by incantations 
cured him, or failing that, accused some one of 
bewitching his patient. The wizard or witch 
w^as tortured and put to death, after which the 
sick Indian recovered or died, as the case might 
be. 

Captain E. C. Merriman, of the U. S. Navy, 
destroyed the power of the shaman by rescuing 
the accused and punishing the shaman. 

The shaman spends the greater part of his 
life in the forest, fasting and recei^Mng inspira- 
tion from his totemic spirits. A concoction 
of dried frogs' legs and sea water give him 
power to perceive a man's soul — the Tlingit 
w^oman had no soul then — escaping from his 



68 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

body and to catch it and restore it to the 
man. 

The THngits practiced cremation, but the 
body of a shaman was never cremated, it would 
not burn. It was always buried in a little box- 
like tomb. The body was wrapped in blankets 
and placed in a sitting posture, surrounded by 
the masks, wands, rattles, and all the parapher- 
nalia of the office of a shaman, ready for use 
in the heaven to which he had gone. 

The missionaries have destroyed faith in the 
shaman and broken up the practice of crema- 
tion. 

At Fort ^^^rangel we called on the chief. He 
has the tallest and the most handsomely carved 
pole in the Indian village. 

There are three kinds of totem poles. The 
family totem pole, which is erected in front of 
the home. On it are carved figures represent- 
ing the totems of the family, the wife's totem 
always surmounting the pole and the husband's 
next below. Then appear totems of other 
members of the family. 

The death totem pole is erected at the grave. 
On it are engraved the totems of the dead man's 
ancestors, as well as his own. The third class 
of poles are erected to commemorate some re- 



First Views 69 

markable event in history of the tribe or of the 
man. These poles may l)e seen up and down 
the coast from Vancouver to Yakutat. 

'* And they painted on the grave-posts 
Of the graves yet unforgotten. 
Each his ancestral totem, 
Each the symbol of his household, 
Figures of the l)ear, the reindeer, 
Of the turtle, crane and beaver. 

— Longfellow. 

The fine flower of the native races of the 
coast are the Haidas. They are taller and 
fairer, wdth more regular features than any of 
the Columbian coast tribes. They are aliens to 
the Tlingits, differing from them mentally and 
physically, in speech and customs. The Tlingits 
call them *' people of the sea." They were the 
Norsemen of the Pacific shores; the coppery 
Erics and Harolds, who sailed the blue waters 
of the Pacific, sweeping the coast, attacking 
native villages, Hudson Bay Company posts, 
and the settlements of the whites. The harbor 
at Seattle was a place of rendezvous. 

The oriofin of this darino- race is a mvsterv. 
They hold many traditions in common with 
the Aztec and Zunis of Mexico. Marchand 
identifies them with those whom Cortes drove 
out of Mexico. Many of their images are simi- 



70 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

lar to silver relics found in the ruins of Guate- 
mala. 

These people bear a resemblance to the Jap- 
anese. They have Japanese words in their 
language ; they sit always at their work and cut 
towards them in using tools, wdiich are much 
like those in use by the Japanese to-day. They 
have also many modern Apache words in their 
speech, while their picture writing is similar 
and in many cases the same as that of the 
Zunis. 

Their own legend of their origin runs in this 
wise : During a great flood when every living 
thing on the earth perished, a few people floated 
to the tops of the mountains in canoes, which 
they anchored with heavy stones. The water 
rose so high, however, that they at last were 
drowned. 

The only living thing to survive the flood 
was a raven. When the waters had subsided 
he flew down to the coast, where the waves 
dashing on the rocks sent forth a noise as of 
thunder. Presently he heard the cry of babies ; 
directly a huge shell came rolling in on the 
sandy beach. The raven opened it and out came 
a strange people. In thankfulness for their de- 






ENTERING WRANGLE, NARROWS. 



First V^iews 



71 



liverance they have made the raven their clan 
totem. 

These people make baskets and mats to-day 
exactly like those made by the natives of the 
Islands of Polynesia, while their carving, in 
which they excel all other tribes of the North, 
resembles the sculpture of ancient Egypt. 

Totem poles originated with these people and 
spread from them to other tribes with whom 
they came in contact. They practiced crema- 
tion and their death totem poles are always 
hollow, making a receptacle for the ashes of the 
dead. 

The earliest explorers found these people liv- 
ing in houses built of heavy, hewn logs, and 
planks hewn out and neatly mortised. The 
houses were covered with a hip roof, supported 
by heavy rafters and tliatched with an odd sort 
of shingle, clipped or hewn out of the logs. On 
the plank floors were mats made from a rush 
which grows on the islands. 

The old Hydahs were a warlike people, who 
were ever waging battle with the fierce Chilkats. 



CHAPTER V 

FURTHER GLIMPSES 

Wrangel narrows is one of the finest scenic 
passages along the coast of Alaska. The mag- 
nificent range of snow-covered mountain peaks, 
the green-clad slopes on the shore and the 
Stickines delta compose as noble a landscape as 
one will see anywhere in the world. The 
sunset and sunrise lights in the narrows and on 
the snowy, cloud-wreathed mountains are mar- 
velous pictures of beauty, beyond the power of 
pen or brush to portray. 

At low tide broad bands of russet hued algae 
border the sea-washed shores. Giant kelp 
break loose from their moorings and go floating 
about, their yellow fronds and orange heads 
contrasting strangely with the intense green of 
the water. The Indians say these kelp are the 
queues of shipwrecked Chinamen. Many eagles 
build their nests in the trees, while myriads of 
seagulls skim the water. 

The scenery of the Stickine river is equally 

72 




DOUGLAS ISLAND, LOOKLNG TOWARD JUNEAU 



Further Cilimpses 73 

grand. Three liiindrcd ^laciers drain their 
\vaters into tliis river. 

The tourist meets the first tide water glaeier 
in the Bay of Le Conte. The Stickine Indians 
called it Hutli, Thunder Bay. Here, they say, 
dwells Hutli, the Thunder Bird. To their 
imaginative mind the cracking of the ice and 
the noise of the falling icehergs, is the cry of 
Hutli, and the roar of the falling water the 
flapping of his huge wings. 

In Lapland the guardian spirit of the moun- 
tains is known as Haltios. 

Juneau is located at the foot of Mt. Juneau, 
which is more than three thousand feet high. 
It is snow^-capped and delicious water comes 
pouring down the mountain sides. Juneau is 
a newdy built town and is the largest on the 
coast. It has a population of thirty-five 
hundred. Just below the town is a village 
of Taku Indians. Back of the village are the 
grave houses. Here we find totem poles and 
Indian offerings to the spirits. Steamers bring 
to this wdiarf fruits and vegetables. Radishes, 
lettuce and onions, also rhubarb, look tempting 
in the gardens. Juneau is the home of many 
miners and prospectors. The chief mining 
interest in this vicinity is the Treadwell mines, 



74 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

located on Douglas island, just across Gasti- 
neau channel from Juneau. The ore runs from 
two dollars and twenty cents to four dollars 
per ton only, but the water power coming from 
the mountains makes the working of the mines 
cheap, so that the company is enabled to pay 
large dividends. Hundreds of sacks of gold, 
nearly free from rock, lay day and night on the 
wharves, waiting for the steamers to carry it 
away to the stamping mill. On the wharf at 
Treadwell lay twenty thousand dollars. 

The mill spoken of is the largest in the world. 
It runs eight hundred and eighty stamps day 
and night. There is enough ore in sight 
to run the mill twenty-four hours a day 
for thirty years. The mountains are be- 
ing literally blasted down and carted away. 
The Indians work in the mines, but they 
cannot compete with their Anglo Saxon 
brothers, they earning only about half as much. 
They will not trust the white man over night, 
hence are paid at the close of each day. 

The Indians wear citizens' clothes and carry 
watches. Many of them sport canes when 
walking about the streets. The women and 
girls do the family washing- on the rocks in the 
mountain streams. One little black-eyed, 



Further Glimpses 75 

brown-faced witch who said her name was 
Troke Lewis, was washing handkerchiefs on a 
big rock over which the water poured. She 
paused to talk to us, a cake of soap held high in 
one hand, while with the other she held her 
handkerchiefs down in the cold water on the 
rock. 

Just around the cliff, back of Juneau, lies the 
beautiful Silver Bow canon. 

There are plenty of fine fish in the bay, Sal- 
mon, trout and eels abound. The writer caught 
a trout weighing ten pounds and an eel weigh- 
ing one pound. 

Skagway is located on the Lynn canal at the 
foot of Mt. Dewey, which rises sheer fifty- 
five hundred feet above the sea. The cli- 
mate is very mild, the thermometer never 
being known to register over six below 
zero. A veritable Ganymede sends down 
a vast supply of the most delicious water. 
Skagway is the coming city of Alaska. 
It will be to Alaska what Chicago is to the 
Middle Western States, what St. Paul and 
Minneapolis are to the Northwest and what 
Seattle is to the North Pacific coast. Streets 
are being laid out and other improvements are 
going on. Log cabins covered with tar paper 



76 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

are being replaced by more substantial build- 
ings. People are coming here to stay and the 
representative inhabitants of this youthful town 
are men and women of refinement and culture 
from the Eastern and Middle States. 

At Skagway all sorts of vegetables are grow- 
ing in the gardens, lettuce, radishes, onions, 
potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes. 

We spent the Fourth of July in this place. 
Congressman Warner invited us to join him 
and the senatorial party for the day. We went 
to the summit of the Selkirk mountains, to the 
head of the Yukon River on the White Pass 
and Yukon railway, after which the party was 
entertained in Skagway. 

Observation cars were especially prepared 
for the party. These consisted of flat cars 
around which run a railing. The seats were 
reversable and ran lengthAvise of the cars. Thus 
you might view the wall of granite along which 
you were passing or reverse the seat and behold 
the wonderful things to be seen in the pass be- 
low, where the march of Civilization has left 
her trail, cabins, mining camps, amidst snow 
and flowering mosses, tin cans, cracker boxes; 
and last but not least, horses and mules just as 



OLD RUSSIAN COURT HOUSE, JUNEAU. 



Further Glimpses 77 

good as when they lay clown to their last sleep 
in these wilds. 

The run to the summit was made in two 
hours. Over the same route men and pack 
mules plod along three weeks. Only in places 
is there much vegetation on these granite moun- 
tains. Toward the summit blackberries are in 
bloom. They are perfect plants only two 
inches high, each plant sending out two 
or three branches loaded with bloom. Dwarf 
pines and tufts of grass grow in the crevices of 
the rocks and on the sides of the mountains, . 
where a little soil has found lodgment. 

The White Pass and Yukon railway, which 
was opened in February, now^ runs trains over 
the summit to Lake Bennet. Work is being 
pushed rapidly forward to the final destination, 
Ft. Selkirk, Northwest Territory. The dis- 
tance from Skagway to the summit is sixteen 
miles. The road was blasted out of solid gran- 
ite all the way and is a w^onderful feat of engi- 
neering skill. 

There are the usual curves and loops, but 
these are not sufficient to overcome the steep 
grade which rises two hundred feet to the mile. 
The road rises thirtv-two hundred feet in the 



78 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

sixteen miles. At one place the train was run 
up into a ravine on a Y. The engine was un- 
coupled and coming in behind us pushed the 
coaches up to the summit. 

The ice bridges all through the mountains are 
in good repair, the turbulent streams flowing 
under them with a dash and a roar of the Sel- 
kirk's own. 

All along the way to the summit is visible on 
the opposite side of the pass, the foot trail of 
the Indians. This narrow path lies along the 
sheer cliffs, dropping suddenly into deep ra- 
vines, then almost straight up the precipitous 
side of the mountain. 

An enterprising company has built a wagon 
road to the summit, but a nervous person had 
best run his carriage on more level ground. 
This road stands on end in many places. It 
runs along level enough for a foot or two then 
takes a header into a ravine, presently it winds 
over a frail bridge which the spooming torrent 
below^ threatens every minute to wreck. 

The wagon relegated the trail to oblivion. 
Then came the railroad and travel and com- 
merce deserted the wagon road. Here they 
lie, the foot trail on one side, the wagon way 
on the other, and just above the road way, the 




STREET IN JUNEAU. 



Further Glimpses 79 

railway. Three path ways; that of the un- 
tauo-ht, unskilled Indian, that of the enterpris- 
ing pioneer and that of the modern engineer, 
traverse this play ground of the Titans. 

At the summit of the mountains Old Glory 
waves beside the British flag. Several British 
red-coated police are on duty at this point. 
They live in one-room frame houses covered 
with sail cloth. 

The Yukon river rises at this point and flows 
four thousand miles into Behring Sea. Just 
now the head is a bank of snow from which we 
made snowballs. 

The railroad will shortly be completed to 
Lake Bennet. From that point, with the excep- 
tion of White Horse rapids, is a clear, unim- 
peded water route to Dawson City, in the heart 
of the Klondike. 

From the Dawson City Midnight Sun we 
learn that this metropolis of the Northwest 
Territory is quite a busy place. 

Hundreds are leaving for the Cape Nome 
country by every steamer, and many are making 
the trip in open boats. 

A disastrous fire occurred on the hill back 
of Dawson on Wednesday last, when about 
forty cabins were destroyed by the blaze. In 



8o A Pacific Coast Vacation 

many cases the entire contents were destroyed, 
while some few were enabled to save their out- 
fits. The fire caught from a small bonfire 
down near the Klondike, and in the first ravine 
up that stream. It ran up the hill to the trail, 
and then burning down towards the ferry, also 
destroyed half the homes on the lower side of 
the trail. The loss is estimated to reach about 
five thousand dollars, and fell on a class who 
could ill afford the loss, some being left abso- 
lutely destitute. 

Scows and boats through from Lake Bennett 
began arriving in great numbers the last of the 
week, and are continuing to do so. 

Trunks and bandboxes are taking the place 
of dunnage bags heretofore brought into the 
country. Every steamer is unloading cords of 
them. 

Men who during the winter were spending 
hundreds of dollars over the gambling tables 
are now looking for a chance to work their pas- 
sage out. 

The suspicious actions of two strangers over 
on Gold Run has caused gold sacks to be 
guarded more carefully. 

Two men while poling a boat up the river, 
were overturned near the mouth of the Klon- 




GREEK CHURCH, JUNEAU. 



Further Glimpses 8 i 

dike, losing a valuable kit of tools. The men 
were picked up by a boat pushed off from the 
river l)ank. 

The grand opera house, built by Charles 
Meddows, is to be the finest building in Daw- 
son. It is three stories high. The auditorium 
has a seating capacity of two thousand and a 
double row of boxes, forty-two in number. 

From present indication Dawson will cele- 
brate the Fourth of July as it was never before 
celebrated. Citizens of Canada are as eager 
supporters of this movement as are those of the 
States. There was a public mass meeting held 
in June at the A. C. warehouse, when there was 
about five hundred people present, and an exec- 
utive committee appointed. Since then the 
different committees have been appointed and 
are meeting even better support from all 
quarters than expected. 

The foreman of the Gold Hill mine saved 
from his washup a thousand dollars' worth of 
handsome nuggets. Over these he kept a jeal- 
ous eye continually until last Friday. Between 
seven and eight o'clock that evening he went 
to a neighboring cabin to bid good-by to Sam 
Miller, who was preparing to return to the 
States. During his temporary absence some 



82 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

sneak thief entered the cahin and cutting open 
a vahse secured the sack of nuggets, but in his 
haste overlooked fifteen hundred dohars in dust 
lying near by. 

We learn that a responsible firm is organiz- 
ing a properly conducted express company, 
which will be prepared to carry parcels, gold 
dust, and attend to commissions. Thus a long 
felt w^ant will be supplied in connection with 
Dawson's dealing with outside points. 

The foreman of the Eldorado is doing 
the finest piece of mining yet seen in the Klon- 
dike. A passer by would think that his large 
force of men was laying off a baseball ground, 
so level is the entire five hundred-foot claim 
being stripped for summer sluicing. 

Cards are out announcing the marriage of 
two of Dawson's most prominent young peo- 
ple. 

A beautiful baby girl born over on Bonanza 
claim the other day is considered the most 
valuable nugget on the claim. 

Patrick O'Flynn, a prisoner serving a six 
months' sentence, escaped Thursday and has 
gone, nobody knows where. He, with other 
prisoners, was carrying water from the Yukon 
when he bolted among the tents along the river 



INDIAN CHIEF-S HOUSE, JUNEAU. 



Further Glimpses 83 

bank, mingled with the crowd and was lost 
sight of. One hundred dollars reward was 
promptly offered for information leading to 
his capture. 

The Yukon has been steadily rising for the 
past week, and the high water mark is not yet 
reached. Water is backed up in the Klondike, 
overflowing the island. 

This little city came near having a Johns- 
town flood last winter. An eye witness thus 
describes how the ice went out at Dawson. 
The river had been frozen all winter. Wlien a 
few warm spring days came, the melting ice 
and snow in the mountains sent down immense 
volumes of water the strain of which the ice 
could not long withstand. All day the people 
stood helplessly about discussing the situation. 
A flood seemed inevitable; the greater part of 
the city was in danger of being swept away; 
until three o'clock in the afternoon the situa- 
tion was unchanged, the ice gave no evidence 
of going. 

Suddenly and almost simultaneously all 
along the city front the ice was seen to com- 
mence moving. A steamboat whistled and the 
cry went up, " The ice is moving," and thou- 
sands of spectators rushed to the river bank 



84 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

just in time to see it go. The dancing masses 
of huge pieces of ice weighing tons upon tons, 
reared high in the air and tumbHng over each 
other as they feU, presented a most beautiful 
spectacle. At ten o'clock it jammed and 
raised the water about three feet, doing no 
damage except smashing the wheel of the 
steamer Nellie Irving. In ten minutes the jam 
broke and the next morning the river, which 
the day before was frozen solid across, was en- 
tirely free except for blocks of floating ice from 
above. 

Last year ice jammed and, backing the water 
up, flooded the town, doing much damage. 




SUMMIT OF THE SELKIRK RANGE, AT HEAD OF YUKON RIVER. 
OLD GLORV WAVES BESIDE THE BRITISH FLAG. 



CHAPTER VI 

GOLD FIELDS 

The United States Geological Survey has 
gathered a volume of information on the sub- 
ject of the gold fields of Alaska. The object of 
the expedition was to discover the source from 
which the gold of the Yukon placer mines was 
derived. A belt of auriferous rocks, five hun- 
dred miles long and from fifty to one hundred 
wide, runs from the British Territory across 
the American line at Forty Mile Creek. It is 
the opinion of the Geological Survey that the 
gold deposits of Alaska will rival those of 
South Africa. 

Returning to Skagway the gentlemen of our 
party were entertained at a banquet given by 
the members of the Chamber of Commerce, in 
their building. 

The ladies were invited by Mrs. Bracket to 

her lovely home where a delightful luncheon 

was served. The leading ladies of Skagway 

were met at the home of our charming hostess 

85 



86 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

to bid us welcome to their enterprising little 
city. 

An employe of the engineering department 
of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad 
is at the Portland hotel. He came in 
from Cariboo Crossing to celebrate the Fourth, 
and recuperate from a hard trip up the 
Watson river and along the foothills of the 
mountains to the Fifty Mile river below White 
Horse Rapids. Alost of the country through 
which the party traveled is entirely new to map 
makers and no signs of trails, mess debris, 
chopping or other evidences of a previous visi- 
tation could be found. As a consequence a 
number cf streams and lakes were discovered. 
Of the latter some are quite large and are teem- 
ing with large lake trout. The latter were 
caught in large numbers by throwing a common 
pickerel trotting hook, attached to a line, out 
into the lake and hauling it ashore. It was sel- 
dom that a cast failed to land a fish. Artificial 
flies had no attraction for them. In appear- 
ance these fish look very much like the moun- 
tain trout of Puget Sound, but are much lighter 
in color. The topographer of the party, says 
they are identical with the trout found m the 
Adirondack lake regions. 



Gold Fields 87 

The head chainman, killed a huge l)r()\vn 
bear, which, after being shot, made a furious 
charge upon him and was only laid low when 
but a few feet away from his slayer. 

The lower lands of this country are almost 
entirely devoid of rock. The soil is an ashy 
sand patched with powdered limestone stretch- 
ing over the country in white patches like alkali 
lakes. On the Forty Mile river declivity the 
country is cut up with huge pot-holes. Many 
of these contain lakes of the purest water, that 
gleam in the sunlight in green, azure and dark 
blue according to their depths and shades. A 
curious peculiarity of these lakes lies in the fact 
that their outlets and inlets are subterranean. 
They receive their supply from the bottoms 
of lakes above and their overflow per- 
colates through their lower Ijanks to lakes 
below. 

The country swarms with ducks, snipe and 
other water fowl. It is now the breeding sea- 
son and ducks followed by broods of ducklings 
may be seen along the edge of every sheet of 
water. Much fresh sign of bear, moose, moun- 
tain sheep and cariboo w^ere seen throughout 
the country, but the noise attendant upon the 
progress of the party along the line of their 



88 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

journey, gave all the big game a good opportu- 
nity to get out of sight. 

The open coulees and plateaus of this country 
are waving with luxuriant bunch-grass, rye- 
grass and redtop, but the mosquitoes are in 
such untold numbers and so violent in their at- 
tacks that the pack horses of the party were too 
worried to recei\-e much benefit in grazing. In 
places are woodlands of large spruce and tall 
lodge-pole pines, but most of the timber is 
scrubby and fit only for fuel. 

No indications of mineral could be seen. 

The night before the Fourth a large flag was 
planted on top of Mt. Dewey. The town was 
decorated with bunting and flags. Well dressed 
people thronged the streets. An oration was 
delivered from the grand stand and foot 
and horse races lent zest to the sports. 

The town has two fire companies. These 
exhibited their hose-carts and ran a race, mak- 
ing an exhibition of their skill in handling the 
hose. Water is plenty, as it comes down the 
mountain side in a vast volume from a lake near 
the summit of Mt. Dewey and is piped over the 
town. 

While the town looks and is new there was 
nothing to distinguish the celebration of the na- 




TH 



E SKAGUAY ENCIlAxNTRESS. 



Gold Fields 89 

ticmal holiday from the same day in the States. 

We are now above the line of nig-ht. It is as 
light as day all night. Xo light is needed as 
one can read at any time of night without it. 
The sun scarcely sets in the west until it rises 
in the east. At Summit lake, which is at the 
top of the mountains, there is no night at all, 
it being in latitude sixty north and longitude 
one hundred and sixty west. 

The display of the aurora l)orealis each night 
is a scene never to be forgotten. Night after 
night the whole northern sky is aflame with a 
light akin to sunlight tempered by moonlight 
and enriched by the splendor of the rainbow's 
glorious hues. The Tlingit Indians believe the 
aurora to be the ghost-dance of dead warriors 
who live on the plains of the sky. 

The Skagway enchantress is a figure in stone 
high up on the mountain side resembling a 
woman. Her flowing garments resemble those 
of a stylish Parisian gown. The Indians for- 
merly crossed the mountains at this point, Chil- 
kat Pass, but this witch long ago enchanted the 
trail, so that it meant death to follow it. The 
Indians now turn aside here and follow the 
White Pass. 



90 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

High above the enchantress's head a bear, 
whose head is plainly visible, stands guard over 
her. 

If you look long enough on a moonlight 
night you can see the Enchantress move, but 
she cannot leave the mountain. She cannot 
come down, yet Chilkat Pass remains en- 
chanted. 




SKAGUAY, SHOWING WHITE PASS. 



CHAPTER VII 

MUIR GLACIER 

The sun shone 1)riglit and warm, but a cold 
wave swept over the glacier. It was the beau- 
tiful ]\Iuir glacier. 

We left the steamer in a little boat and were 
rowed to the shore, landing on the sandy beach. 
High on the sand lay an Indian canoe, a dug- 
out. Near by a ])arty of Indians wrapped in 
their scarlet blankets squatted on the sand. 
They had come to meet the steamer and sell 
their toys, baskets and slippers. 

A little black eyed boy had a half dozen young 
seagulls, in a basket, great awkward squabs. 
Their coats were a dirty fuzzy down like that 
of a gosling, sprinkled over with black dots. 
Their big hungry mouths and frowsy coats 
gave no hint of the beautiful birds they would 
1)e when they grew up. 

When I paused to look at the birds their 
owner regarded me with interest as he sat with 
the basket hugged to his breast. Then the 
91 



92 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

young merchant held one up for my inspection, 
with the remark, " hees nice bird." 

'' Yes," said I, " hees very nice." I had no 
thought of buying a seagulL What would I do 
with it? Then I remembered a little invalid 
boy whom I thought might be pleased with a 
pet seagull. 

" How much you give? " inquired my little 
Indian boy. 

" How much will you take? " 

" Two bits." 

So, I paid down my two bits and picked up 
my baby seagull. Then my little merchant 
spoke up, " Him want basket? " 

'' Yes," I said, " I think that I want a bas- 
ket." 

The basket was paid for and my enterprising 
little Indian tucked the baby gull in with a wisp 
of sea weed and handed him to me with the re- 
mark, " Him all right now." 

How that gull did squawk when he found 
himself all alone in a big basket. What cared 
he that I had purchased for him the prettiest 
basket on the beach ? He wanted his brothers. 
When we arrived on the deck of the steamer 
I hurried my gull down to the steward and 
gained admission for him to the cook's depart- 




MUIR GLACIER (SECTION OF) 



Muir Glacier 



93 



ment, where lie was cared for the remainder 
of the voyage. 

It is something of a novelty to be seated at 
the base of a glacier in July. From the Chil- 
koot to the source of the Yukon river is only 
thirty-five miles, but the intervening mountain 
chain is several thousand feet high and bears 
numerous glaciers on its seaward side. Forty 
miles west of Lynn canal and separated from it 
by a low range of mountains is Glacier bay, and 
at the head of one of its inlets is the far-famed 
Muir glacier. It is one of the many fields of 
ice which stellates from a center fifteen miles 
back of the Muir front and covers the valley of 
the mountains betw^een the Pacific and the 
headwaters of the Yukon river. Nine glaciers 
now discharge icebergs into the bay. All of 
these glaciers have receded from one to four 
miles in the past twenty years. Kate Field 
says, " In Switzerland a glacier is a vast bed of 
dirty air-holed ice that has fastened itself like 
a cold porous plaster to the Alps. In Alaska 
a glacier is a wonderful torrent that seems to 
have been frozen when about to plunge into the 
sea." There they lay, almost free from de- 
bris, clear and gleaming in the cold sunshine of 
Alaska. The most beautiful of them all is the 



94 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Muir glacier. It is named in honor of John 
Muir, who visited Alaska in company with Mr. 
Young, the Presbyterian missionary, in 1879, 
and discovered it. This glacier extends straight 
across the fiord, presenting at tide water a per- 
pendicular wall two hundred to four hundred 
feet above and seven hundred and fifty feet be- 
low the surface, making a solid wall of ice a 
thousand feet high and three miles wide. 

I cannot do better than to give Prof. Muir's 
own description of this wonderful incr de glace: 
''The front and brow of the glacier were dashed 
and sculptured into a maze of yawning chasms, 
ravines, canons, crevasses, and a bewildering 
chaos of architectural forms, beautiful beyond 
description, and so bewildering in their beauty 
as to almost make the spectator believe he is 
reveling in a dream. There were great clusters 
of glistening spires, gables, obelisks, monoliths, 
and castles, standing out boldly against the sky, 
with bastion and mural surmounted by fretted 
cornice and every interstice and chasm reflect- 
ing a sheen of scintillating light and deep blue 
shadow, making a combination of color, daz- 
zling, startling and enchanting." 

This is nature's iceberg factory. The '' calv- 
ing " of a berg is a wonderful sight and one 



Muir Glacier 95 

never to be forc;-otten. Avalanches and great 
blocks of crumbling- ice are continually falling 
with a crash and roar into the sea, while spray 
dashes high and great waves roll along the wall 
of the glacier, washing the blocks of floating ice 
upon the sandy beach on either side of the great 
ice-wall. The great buttresses on either side 
as they rise from the sea are solid white, veined 
and streaked with mud and rocks, but farther 
in near the middle of the wall the color changes 
to turquoise and sapphire blues, blended with 
the changeable greens of the sea. 

The upper strata of a glacier moves faster 
than the lower and is constantly being pushed 
forward, producing a perpendicular and at 
times projecting front. A piece of the project- 
ing front breaks off and falls with a heavy 
splash into the water, then up it comes almost 
white. Now^ a piece breaks from the lower and 
older strata and comes up a dazzling green. 
Again a deafening roar as of artillery and a 
huge piece of ice splits ofT from top to bottom of 
the sea wall and goes plunging and raving like 
a great lion to the bottom of the sea, then up it 
comes slowly, a berg of dazzling rainbow hues. 
Such a one, as big as all the business houses in a 
village, floated tow^ard the beach and the out- 



96 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

going tide left it stranded there. We ate a 
piece of it, ice thousands of years old, and drank 
water from a cup or pocket in its side. 

The beach is strewn with rock, pebbles and 
bowlders carved by the icy hand of the glacier. 
Along the beach near the glacier, just above 
high tide, in the rocks and sand grow lagoon 
grass, laurel and beautiful clarkias. These bril- 
liant purple flowers are named for Prof. Clarke, 
who first studied and classified them. They 
are sweet scented and belong to the evening 
primrose family. 

The Tlingit Indians believe that mountains 
were once living creatures and that the glaciers 
are their children. These parents hold them in 
their arms, dip their feet into the sea, then cover 
them with snow in the winter and scatter rocks 
and sand over them in summer. These In- 
dians dread the cold and always speak tie name 
Sith, the ice god. in a whisper. They 
have no fear of a hades such as ours. To them 
hell is a place of everlasting cold. The chill of 
the ice god's breath is death. He freezes rivers 
into glaciers and when angry heaves down the 
bergs and crushes canoes. \\'hen summer 
comes the ice spirit sleeps, but the Indians speak 



Muir Glacier 97 

in whispers and never toucli the icel)ergs with 
their canoe paddles for fear of awaking him. 

Once upon a time glaciers plowed over Illi- 
nois. Manitoba and Hudson Bay were then 
great snow and ice fields, down from which 
swept the glaciers over the United States south 
to the Ohio river. Great rocks and bowlders 
were carried along and deposited here and there 
on the broad prairies. Many of these rocks and 
bowlders may still be seen in central Illinois, 
still bearing the marks of the glacial slide. 

An odd old character in our neighborhood 
used to tell us children that those big flattened 
bowlders were left there for the good people to 
stand on when the world should be burned up. 
'' Would they get hot? " we asked. " Oh, how 
could they w^hen they had lain years in the 
heart of a glacier? " To all of our questions 
as to how he knew he always turned a deaf 
ear. 

Our sailors rowed out and with ropes cap- 
tured an iceberg which they said would weigh 
five tons and with rope and tackle hauled it 
aboard and put it down in the hold. Then they 
captured a second one not quite so large and 
after it was safely stored away we weighed an- 



98 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

chor and steamed out of the beautiful bay, 
afloat with icebergs, many of them being larger 
above water than our ship. But one disap- 
pointment met me, not a polar bear was in sight. 

A nunatak is an area of fertile land sur- 
rounded by ice. One of the finest on the Alas- 
kan coast is Blossom island. It is quite a large 
tract of rich land covered with forest and 
brilliant flowers. 

When Mr. Young (before mentioned) was 
missionary to the Hooniah Indians they ap- 
pealed to him to pray to God to keep the gla- 
ciers from cutting down the trees on the bays 
putting into Cross sound. They said their medi- 
cine man had advised them to offer as a sacri- 
fice two of their slaves to the ice god, but this 
they had done without any effect. They were 
greatly disappointed when Mr. Young told 
them that he could do nothing to prevent the 
glaciers destroying their forests. 

Passing Cross strait we go down Chatham 
strait. Our next stop is Killisnoo, a small 
fishing hamlet on Admiralty island. The 
largest cod liver oil factory in the world is lo- 
cated here. The Northwest Trading Company 
established a fishing post here in 1880. Chat- 
ham strait is full of cod. The fish are arti- 




(iREEK CHURCH, KH.LISNOO. 



Muir Glacier 



99 



ficially dried. The natives receive two cents 
apiece for a five-poiind fisli. Manv fish are 
packed in salt. Our steamer took on many 
hundred pounds of ch-ied and packed tish. Cod 
Hver oil is made in the factory. Each barrel 
of fish when pressed yields three (piarts of oil 
valued at twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents 
per gallon. The refuse of fifty barrels of fish 
when dried and powdered yields one ton of 
guano worth thirty dollars. This is shipped to 
the fruit ranches of California and the sugar 
plantations of the Hawaiian islands. Great 
vats of oil stand in rows under the shed of the 
factory. 

There is a little fish here called the candle 
fish. It is almost all oil. For a light the na- 
tives impale this fish on a stick and light the 
fish. It burns with a sizzle and sputter but 
makes a good light. 

This is a beautiful island. The gardens are 
now at their best. Everything grows luxuri- 
antly. Fine strawberries, currants and goose- 
berries are grown. Beds of royal purple and 
golden pansies in dewy splendor adorn the 
yards and gardens, great broad faced beauties 
measuring from two to two and a half inches 
across. 

L.efC. 



loo A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Here we met our first Alaskan mosquito. 
He is about the size of our glow flies. His bite 
is something to remember. It leaves a minia- 
ture snow capped mountain on your face. 

The Indians say that once upon a time, many 
thousand of snows ago, he was a giant spider, 
but a wicked manitou tossed him into the fire 
one day where he shriveled up to his present 
size. The bad manitou thought him dead 
but when the fire burned low he escaped and 
flew away with a live coal in his mouth which 
he carries to this day. Since he could not be 
revenged on the manitou he takes his vengeance 
out on man. 

Arachne, fair mortal, at Minerva's fateful 
touch shrank and shriveled into a spider. 

The student of Indian myths will be im- 
pressed before he carries his researches very 
far, with the likeness of many of these legends 
to the mythologies of the old world. 

These Indians, the Kootznahoos, claim to 
have come from over the seas. They deny any 
relation wath the Tlingits. They were the first 
Indians to distill hoochinoo, which carries more 
fight and warwhoop to the drop than any other 
liquor known. It is made from a mash of yeast 
and molasses, thickened with a little flour. 




KITCHNATTI. 



Muir Glacier loi 

Tliey were oreat fighters and murdered the 
traders as soon as the Russians left. In 1869 
Commander Mead shelled the villaoe and took 
Kitchnatti prisoner. He was taken to Mare 
Island, CaHfornia, and confined for a year. 
The tribe now numbers only five hundred 
souls. They are a peaceable people and 
follow fishing for a livelihood. Many of 
them are employed in the fish factory on the 
island. Kitchnatti is still the recognized 
chief, and is very proud of his position. 
He meets all the steamers coming in and 
is delighted to meet the officers of the vessels, 
all of whom are kind to him. He is quite vain 
in his dress, wearing a silk hat, long coat, black 
pantaloons and slippers. He also sports a cane, 
which is a sheathed sword. He claims descent 
from ancestry as old as " yonder granite moun- 
tain " which stands across the strait. His state 
dress, consists of a crown made of goat horns 
and a tunic made of red felt trimmed with fur. 
Over his door he has posted his escutcheon, 
which some one has translated for him into 
English. It reads, '' By the governor's permis- 
sion and the company's commission I am made 
the Grand Tyhee of this entire illabee." 

On a green slope stands a Greek church, es- 



I02 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

tablished by the Russian government. The 
priest hves in a tiny cottage next door. 

At the wharf a dozen httle Indian l3oys, 
dressed in sweaters and overalls, displayed 
much energy and skill in helping to unload the 
freight which was landed at this point. The 
first officer gave them fifty cents apiece when 
the work was completed and away they went 
to spend it, American boy like, at the candy 
store. 

One of the most interesting things that I saw 
in the village was a little papoose taking his 
bath in a big dishpan on the front veranda. 
He did not like it at all and kicked and screamed 
but his mother without a word proceeded w'ith 
the bathing. 

Just off Killisnoo the steamer anchored sev- 
eral hours to gi\'e the passengers an opportunity 
to trv deep-sea fishing. Some fine halibut were 
brought aboard. Then we weighed anchor 
and steamed toward the old town of Sitka. 
This ancient capital of the RomanofTs is the 
seat of the territorial government of Alaska. 
A strong effort is being made by the mining 
interest of Juneau to move it to that point. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SITKA 

Sitka is beautifully located at the foot of the 
mountains and commands a fine view seaward. 
The streets are not regularly laid out. Every- 
one appears to have chosen the site that pleased 
him best, regardless of his neighbors. Many of 
the buildings are old. At every turn one is 
made aware of Russian architecture. Several 
blocks from the wharf and directly in the mid- 
dle of the street stands the Russian orthodox 
church of St. Michaels. The interior is richly 
decorated. Many rich paintings adorn the 
walls. A handsome brass chandelier hangs 
from the ceiling. Massive brass candlesticks 
stand on either side of the door. The interior 
is finished in white and gold, and the inner 
sanctuary where women may not enter is sepa- 
rated from the church proper by fine bronze 
doors. 

The Sitka Mission and Industrial School was 
established by the Presbyterian board in 1878. 
103 



104 ^ Pacific Coast Vacation 

There are now enrolled sixty-four boys and 
forty-six girls. School continues nine months 
of the year. The boys and girls occupy sepa- 
rate buildings. The forenoon the pupils spend 
in the school rooms and the afternoons the girls 
spend in the sewing room and the boys in the 
shops. The superintendent called a bright boy 
about twelve years of age and asked him if he 
could show me about the grounds and through 
the workshops while he conducted a larger 
party in a different direction. " Yes sir," and 
with a touch of his cap to me, led the way to the 
carpenter shop. Two young men busy at work 
at a long bench touched their caps and a " Good 
afternoon, madam," greeted me. " Yes madam, 
I am a carpenter," proudly replied one of the 
voung men to my question. He was about 
eighteen years old, while his companion was 
only sixteen. In this shop the pupils make ta- 
bles, chairs and all sorts of furniture. I was 
next conducted to the tin shop, where besides 
pots and pans, stoves are made out of sheet iron 
and scraps of any old thing that is left over. 
All of the stoves in the school buildings are 
made in this way. My young Indian guide 
next conducted me to the shoe shop. 

The schools are having vacation now, so the 




INDIAN AVKNUE, SITKA. 



Sitka 105 

shops are not running a full numl)er of pupils. 
The conductor and two juipils were at work, 
the former on fine shoes and the latter on heavy 
Klondike boots. Each boy has his own cob- 
bler's bench and a full set of tools. A third 
boy was sauntering about the room making 
himself familiar with his surroundings. The 
conductor of the shop told me that this lad had 
chosen the shoe maker's trade and was to be- 
gin work on the following morning. 

The boys all greeted me with a smile 
of welcome wdien I entered and bade me 
good-by when I departed. My guide said 
that the paint shop was closed, but he ex- 
plained to me the object of the shop and 
the work done there. \\'lien I asked him 
if he had chosen his trade he politely ex- 
plained that he had only been in the school a 
year and that he had not decided what he w^ould 
like. The pupils enter for five years, the par- 
ents or guardian signing a contract to that ef- 
fect. My guide conducted me to the gate, 
where I thanked him for his kindness. He 
gracefully touched his cap and said: " Good-by 
madam, T was glad to show you about." 

All of the dormitories, play rooms and 
school rooms are models of neatness. In the 



I 06 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

girls' building the bread was just being taken 
out of the bake oven. Thirty loaves was the 
day's baking. The boys make the bread and 
put it to rise. The girls mould it out and bake 
it. The Indians are very proud of the school 
and come of their own accord seeking admis- 
sion for their children. This school is making 
these Indians self-supporting and consequently 
prosperous. One sees many bright faces among 
them and the younger people are happy and 
contented, with nothing in their dress or man- 
ner to distinguish them from young white 
Americans of the same age. In an old block- 
house located on a rocky prominence overlook- 
ing the sea some of the boys of the school spend 
the evening hours in band practice. They 
played until eleven o'clock on the parade 
ground without a light, reading their music by 
twilight. The selections were choice and well 
rendered. They played " Star Spangled Ban- 
ner " as an opening piece. Sitka is rightfully 
proud of her Indian band. The Indian is 
given his chance in this land of the midnight 
sun and he is making the most of his opportu- 
nities. 

Opposite the Mission on the bank of the In- 
dian River is a large square rock called the 




BLOCKHOUSE ON BANK OF INDIAN RIVER, SITKA, ALASKA. 



Sitka 107 

Blarney-stone, which dowers the kisser with a 
mai^ic tongue, l)nt never a four leafed shamrock 
in all the merry dell with which to weave a 
magic spell. 

The Sitkans, like all native races have a 
mythical legend as to their origin. 

Two brothers, twins, lived in paradise. One 
of them ate a sea cucumber. It was the 
one forbidden fruit. The paradise became a 
wilderness. The brothers were starving when a 
band of roving Stickines came that way one day 
and pitying them left them wives to care for 
them. 

From one of these pairs sprang all the Kak- 
satti, the Crow clan. From the other de- 
scended all the Kokwantons, the Wolf clan. 

The legends of these Indians as well as all 
other tribes in this country, contain a full ac- 
count of the landing of Columbus. The news 
was carried overland from post to post and tribe 
to tribe by runners. The history of the tribe 
at Sitka runs back five hundred years. Beyond 
that period they have no record and frankly 
say that they have no authentic account of their 
origin. 

Their stature, their industry, their faith in 
the shamin, their belief in transmigration of 



io8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

souls, all point to Asiatic origin. Their word 
for water is agua, much like the Latin aqua. 

The Mission and Training schools have 
transformed these savages, whose ancestors 
murdered the intrepid Muscovites, into frontier 
fishermen, hoatmen and loggers. 

An Indian never willingly consents to have 
his photograph taken, because, when you have 
a picture of him, he firmly believes that you have 
power over his soul. The educated Indian, 
however, is fearless of the camera. 

The Kletwantans and the Klukwahuttes, two 
brandies of the Frog clan, are at variance over 
the erection of a totem pole and have gone into 
court to settle the matter. The Klukwahuttes 
are the true aristocrats of Indian society in 
Sitka. The Kletwantons are the wealthy mem- 
bers of the real Indian four hundred, but having 
made their money in fish and oil, are considered 
upstarts by their more aristocratic brothers. 
The Kletwantons decided to build a new home 
for the chief and to set up an elaborately carved 
and decorated totem pole. The eyes of the frog 
which was to surmount this wonderful pole 
were to be twenty-dollar gold pieces. A grand 
potlatch was to be held when the pole was ready 
to set up. All of the Indians up and down the 



Sitka 109 

coast, from Juneau, Killisnoo, Skagway. l^^t. 
Wrangel and Bella Bellas, were invited, but the 
aristocratic Klukwahuttes were left out. Did 
they sit down and quietly ignore this insult? 
No indeed. They told their w^ealthy brothers 
in true American style what they thought of 
such conduct, and the matter would, no doubt, 
have been dropped here had not the wealthy 
fish oil makers denied that the Klukwahut- 
tes belonged to the Frog clan at all. Upon 
this things grew so warm that the missionary 
appealed to the district attorney to aid him in 
making the Indians keep the peace. Then the 
disgusted Klukwahuttes went to him asking for 
an injunction to keep the pretended Frogs from 
holding the potlatch and setting up the pole. 
He replied to them that he would take the case 
upon them paying him a retainer of five hun- 
dred dollars, feeling sure that would end the 
matter, well knowing that they could not raise 
the money. Petitioned again he reduced his 
fee to two hundred and fifty dollars, feeling 
quite sure that they could not raise even that 
amount. But he reckoned without his host. In 
less than two hours the leading men of the 
Klukwahuttes filed into his ofifice, carrying goat 
skin bags and pouches filled with money and 



I I o A Pacific Coast Vacation 

counted out the two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars in small coins, no coin being larger than 
a fifty-cent piece. The attorney was obliged 
to keep his word and take the case. The in- 
junction was issued restraining the oil makers 
from building the house and setting up the 
totem pole. The potlatch, however, was held. 

When the Juneau Indians arrived in their 
canoes ofif the shore the chief stood up and 
chanted their traditions to prove that they be- 
longed to the Frog clan and were rightfully in- 
vited. When he had finished the leaders of the 
Klukwahuttes, who were standing on the beach, 
recited their traditions to prove that they and 
not the Kletwantans were the true Frogs. The 
Klukwahuttes, however, made no disturbance 
during the feast. Later the Kletwantans em- 
ployed a young Boston lawyer who was stop- 
ping at Sitka and sued the Klukwahuttes for 
damages. Not wishing to be outdone by the ar- 
istocratic Klukwahuttes, they at once paid their 
lawyer a retainer of two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars. There the case rests. The lawyers are 
trying to settle it out of court. 

On an eminence which commands a fine view 
of the harbor and the town, stood the Baranhoff 
castle, which was burned a few years ago. It 



Sitka 1 1 1 

did not in the least resemble a castle. The pic- 
ture makes it look like an old country inn. The 
ruins are still visible and the two thi^hts of steps 
leading- to it still exist. Around this historic 
ground cluster the scenes and incidents of the 
past century. The castle, like the island on 
which it stood, took its name from the Russian 
governor, Baranhoff, who in the early part of 
the century ruled the people with an iron hand, 
beginning with the knout and ending with the 
ax. 

Not one of the intrepid Muscovites who 
landed here in 1741 were left to tell the tale of 
their capture and execution by the native Sit- 
kans. In 1800 another party arrived and placed 
themselves under the protection of the Arch- 
angel Gabriel instead of trusting to the po\ver 
of gunpowder and stockades. They too were 
massacred and their homes destroyed by fire. 
BaranhofT was at once sent out by the Russian 
government. He erected the castle and stock- 
ade, withdrew the town from the protection of 
Gabriel and placed it under the protection of the 
Archangel Michael. 

This old castle was once the home of nobility 
and the scene of grand festivities. Here 
princes and princesses of the blood royal ate 



112 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

their caviare, quaffed their vodka and meas- 
ured a minuet. It was in this old castle that 
Lady Franklin spent three weeks twenty-five 
years ago when in search of her husband, Sir 
John. It was here that W. H. Seward spent 
several days wdien on a trip to Alaska after its 
purchase from Russia, through the sagacity of 
himself and Charles Sumner. At one of the 
windows sat the beautiful Princess Maksoutoff 
weeping bitter tears as the Russian flag 
was lowered for the last time. On the 
1 8th of October, 1867, three United States 
warships lay at anchor in the bay. They 
were the Ossipee, Resaca and James- 
town, commanded by Captains Emmons, 
Bradford and McDougal. Each vessel was 
dressed in the national colors, while the Russian 
soldiers, citizens and Indians assembled upon 
the open space at the foot of the castle carrying 
aloft the eagle of the czar of all the Russias. 
At a given signal the American navy fired a 
salute in honor of the Russian flag, which was 
lowered from the staff on the castle. After a 
national salute from the Russian garrison in 
honor of our flag, the stars and stripes were 
hoisted to the top of the old flag staff. 

The Russian parade ground has been con- 




RAPIDS, INDIAN RIVER, SITKA. 



Sitka I I 3 

verted into a base ball ground, wliere Indian 
and white teams contest for honors. 

The native races of Alaska are slowly dying 
out. The bright light of civilization is always 
the death doom of savagism. 

The most beautiful natural park in the world 
lies just above Sitka, on the banks of the Indian 
River, which rises in the valley between the 
mountains and winding down, empties into the 
5ea. 

Here are the greenest of pines, cedars and 
firs. The grasses and mosses are the brilliant 
green of the tropics. A neat suspension foot 
bridge swings clear of the water from buttress 
to buttress. The shallow, murmuring, sparkling 
water bathes the brown roots of shrubs and 
trees. Great cedars lie prostrate, covered with 
short green moss. Giant firs are draped with a 
delicate sea green moss, wdiich hangs in festoons 
and pendants from branch, limb and trunk. The 
pine tops sigh softly the music of the seas. 

Sunny banks are yellow wdth the familiar 
cinquefoil, the blossoms of which are five 
or six times as large as they are at home. In 
open glades the ground is white with Cornells, 
and tiny dogwood shrub growing from two 
to five inches high. The wild purple geranium 



114 ^ Pacific Coat Vacation 

brightens sunny glades, while the mountain 
spiraea, the most beautiful of all spiraeas, bends 
and sways in the breeze. 

Thickets of salmon berry and wonderful 
mazes of strange ferns meet one at every turn. 
One of the handsomest bushes in the park is the 
magnificent Devil's Club. There are great 
thickets of them twenty feet high casting an en- 
ticing but dangerous shade. The dainty green 
leaves, as large as dinner plates, rear their heads 
aloft, umbrella-like. The stems, limbs, and 
trunk are covered with thousands of tiny pois- 
onous prickles, which work deep into the flesh, 
making ugly sores. 

Down on the beach are the graves of Lisian- 
sky's men, who were killed by ambuscaded In- 
dians while taking water for their ship, in 1804. 

Friday evening we weighed anchor and 
steamed out of the harbor. The beautiful bay, 
with its beautiful islands, slowly receded from 
view and we bade farewell to the historic old 
town of Sitka. 

Hamerton, in his charming wo"k ( n L-^nd- 
scape, says : " There are, I believe, four new ex- 
periences for which no description however ade- 
quately prepares us, the first sight of the sea, 
the first journey in the desert, the sight of flow- 



Sitka 1 1 5 

ing molten lava, and a walk on a great glacier. 
We feel in each case that the strange thing is 
pnre nature, as much nature as a familiar 
English moor, yet so extraordinary that we 
might be in another planet." 

I would add a fifth, sunset at sea. Earth 
holds nothing more fair, nothing more beautiful 
than sunshine. 

A little while ago the sky was blue, flaked 
with fleecy white clouds, the snows on the coast 
range lay sparkling like diamonds in the sun, 
the forest lay dark and green on the mountain- 
side, the sea gray and blue by turns ; but now a 
change comes over nature's moods, the clouds 
elow. the snows take on brilliant hues, the dark 
old forest grows darker, the sea shimmers and 
sparkles, a flaming molten mass. 

The imperial sunset throws its red flame afar, 
'till the land, the sea, the mountains, the sky, 
the very air it incarnadines in one grand flame 
of scarlet. Long, long will the beholder remem- 
ber that glorious sunset at Sitka. 



CHAPTER IX 

ALASKA 

A FRIEND of the writer who owns mines at 
Cook's Inlet thus describes his voyage north 
along the coast to Unalaska : 

We were now aboard the Excelsior. About 
noon the next day we put out to sea and saw no 
more island passages such as we had seen while 
aboard the Queen. 

Our first stop was at Yakutat, an Indian vil- 
lage on the Yakutat Bay. This bay is only an 
indentation of the coast, curving inward for 
about twenty miles. The whole force of the 
Pacific sweeps into it. Landing is both diffi- 
cult and dangerous. In the bay are always many 
icebergs from the glaciers at its head. 

Great excitement prevailed here in 1880 
when gold was discovered in the black sand 
beaches. The rotary hand amalgamators were 
used and as much as forty dollars per day to 
the man was often realized. The miners, how- 
ever, had reckoned without their host; the 
116 



Ahska 117 

Yakutat chief, who suddenly developed finan- 
cial ability worthy of his white brother, ex- 
acted licenses and royalties from the miners. 

This l)lack sand mine was not yet exhausted 
when a tidal wave heaped the coast with fish. 
These decayed in the hot sun and the oil soaked 
down into the sand. The mercury would not 
work and the miners moved to a new beach, but 
again a tidal wave ruined the mines by washing 
all the black sand out to sea. Yakutat was then 
deserted by the miners. The Indian women of 
this village are the finest basket weavers in 
Alaska. 

Soon after leaving Yakutat we sighted Mt. 
St. Elias and the Malispania glacier. The In- 
dians call it Bolshoi Shopka — great one. This 
snow-clad mountain, nearly four miles high, 
beautiful as Valaskjalf, the silver roofed man- 
sion of Odin, is a most magnificent sight. Such 
grandeur, such solidity, such poetry of color, — 
the white i)eak kisses the blue heaven, — such 
solitude. Like the golden few of earth's great 
ones, it stands alone, isolated by its very great- 
ness. 

The Malispania glacier which flows down 
from a great neve field in the mountains, is said 
to be the largest glacier in the world. It is 



1 1 8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

nearly one hundred miles long and thirty-five 
miles wide where it pours into the sea, and rises 
four hundred and fifty feet above tide water. 

Orca, on the shore of Prince William's 
Sound, lies snuggled up under the rugged cliffs, 
which rise sheer thousands of feet high. From 
the woods beyond a noisy river goes leaping 
down the rocks to the sea, where its power is 
chained to run the machinery of a cannery. That 
other Orca was a powerful sea dragon, espe- 
cially fond of a seal diet, but this Orca preys 
only on the salmon. 

Our next stop was at Valdes, where two years 
ago two thousand miners started for Copper 
River, to prospect for gold, but they were 
doomed to disappointment, as yet no gold has 
been discovered on this river. Many and sad 
are the tales of hardships endured by these 
miners. Some worked their way up the Copper 
River and down Xanana River to the Yukon, 
but by far the greater number returned to Val- 
des destitute. Many of the miners lost their 
lives on the Valdes' glacier. In going to Cop- 
per River they had to travel eighteen miles 
across this treacherous glacier. Nine men lost 
their lives here last winter. 




WHERE WHALES AND PORPOISES POKE THEIR NOSES UP 
THROUGH THE BRINE. 



Alaska 1 1 9 

At Vakles is located a government expedition 
under the command of Captain Ambercromhie. 
The object of this expedition is to study the 
topography of the country and to make surveys. 
The government is doing much to aid stranded 
miners to reach Seattle. For thirty days' work 
they are paid five dollars and given a free pas- 
sage to that city. 

Prince William Sound is a fine body of water. 
It is almost surrounded by land. Abrupt moun- 
tains rise seemingly out of the sea. It is deeply 
indented by fiords and inlets running back from 
ten to twenty-five miles. On the south it is 
protected by mountainous islands. In coming 
out (^f this sound we passed around Mummy 
Point, into the ocean. Presently we came to 
the Seal Rocks. They were alive with seals. 
\Mien the engineer blew the whistle they went 
plunging into the sea, making a great splash. 
Whales and porpoises bob their noses up 
through the brine — descendants, no doubt, of 
that gallant crew of Tyrrhenian mariners 
changed by angry Bacchus to dolphins in that 
dusky old time when the gods held sway over 
nature's forces. 

From here to Cook's Inlet we had rough sail- 



I20 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

ing. Neptune was out on a lark. We realized 
fully that he was king of the sea and that we 
were his timid subjects. 

The crowning glory of Alaska's natural at- 
tractions is Cook's Inlet. Sheltered by a great 
mountain wall on the west, its shores enjoy de- 
lightful summer weather. Only the pen of a 
Milton or the matchless brush of a Turner 
could paint this fair empire of earth, sea and 
air. Glacier after glacier, frozen to the cold 
breast of the mountains, lay glistening in the 
sunshine. The finest waterfalls in Alaska leap 
from rugged cliffs and go singing to the sea. 

A grand panorama of snowy peaks, smoking 
volcanoes, forested slopes, grassy glades bright 
with flowers and fertile valleys, lend enchant- 
ment to this wild Arcadia of the North. Goethe 
truly says : ''Him whom the gods true art 
would teach, they send out into the mighty 
world." 

Moose graze in the open glades, mountain 
goat and sheep leap from cliff to rock and away. 
Extensive level plateaus line both shores of the 
inlet, which will make fine grazing country some 
day in the near future. The grass grows luxur- 
iantly and in many places reaches a height of 
six feet. We traveled up the inlet seventy 



Alaska I 2 1 

miles to a brancli of the inlet known as the 
Turnagain Arm, which is from five to eight 
miles wide and enclosed by high mountains. 
These mountains are covered with timber at the 
base. Tall grass covers the mountain side to 
the height of three thousand feet, sweet grass 
for all the flocks of some future Pan. 

We landed at Sunrise, which is the largest 
city on the inlet. It has a population of one 
hundred and fifty, mostly miners. Hope, twelve 
miles away, has a population of seventy-five 
miners. Fine vegetables grow here. A store- 
keeper has a small garden. His potatoes are 
as fine as any grown in the states, some weigh- 
ing one and one-half pounds. He has cabbages 
weighing seven pounds, and turnips weighing 
eleven pounds. Beets, peas and other vegeta- 
bles are as fine as grown anywhere. People 
who have lived here during the winters say that 
the temperature rarely falls twenty degrees be- 
low zero, and that the winters are dry and with- 
out blizzards. 

Moose, mountain goat and wild sheep fur- 
nish the towns and camps with meat, which is 
usually bought from the Indians, who are good 
hunters, but very superstitious. They are afraid 
of a giant who, Odin like, rides from mountain 



122 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

to mountain on the wind, killing every Indian 
whom he finds traveling alone. White men 
don't count, so if you wish to employ a guide 
to accompany you on a hunting expedition you 
must also employ a brother Indian to protect 
him, or he " no go." 

Farther south along the coast a black dwarf 
haunts the mountains, making life miserable 
for lone Indians. His arrows, like the magical 
spear of Odin, never miss their mark. 

In the mountains north and west of the inlet 
a giant floats his birch canoe on the wind, from 
peak to peak, seeking lone Indians, whom he 
slays with the canoe paddles. This wonderful 
canoe, like that good ship of Frey, always gets 
a fair wind, no matter for what port its oars- 
man is bound. 

This portion of the inlet, Turnagain Arm, is 
a treacherous bit of water. The highest tides 
rise fifty feet. Then there is the boer, which 
runs up just as the tide comes in, rising eighteen 
to twenty feet perpendicularly. 

No boat can li\'e in it. The tide usually comes 
in three great waves, one right after the other. 
The water is thick with mud, ground up by the 
glaciers at the head of the Arm and brought 
down bv the streams. 



Alaska 123 

There will be s(iine iL^ood i)lacer mines in 
Cook's Inlet when the country is proi)erly 
opened, hut it has hardly been prospected 
as yet, owing to the difficulty in sinking shafts 
to bed rock on account of the water coming in 
so rapidly. It is necessary to go through bed 
rock to the glacier channels below for the main 
deposits of gold. 

By timbering the shafts the water may be 
kept out. The soil and gravel taken out of a 
shaft which has just been sunk averages only 
twenty-five cents per cubic yard, but the ow^ners 
intend to go through the rock to the channels 
below, where they expect to strike a rich vein, 
make their fortunes and return to civilization. 

There is usually a light freeze about the mid- 
dle of September, after which the weather is 
fine until the last of November. 

The king of volcanoes in this region is 
Ilamna. Steam and smoke issue from two 
craters at the summit of the snow-clad moun- 
tain. During an eruption this giant shakes the 
earth to its very center. 

This w^onderful estuary was discovered by 
Captain Cook, on the natal day of Princess 
Elizabeth, May 21, 1778. He took possession 
in the name of her majesty, and buried his 



I 24 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

records in a bottle at Possession Point. Van- 
couver searched for these records in vain. 

Tramways, stone piers and decaying build- 
ings speak in unmistakable language of busy 
scenes during Russian occupation. 

Five hundred miles west of Sitka, on the 
shore of Kadiak, one of the emerald isles of the 
Alaskan coast, is St. Paul, the first capital of 
Alaska, and the center of the fur trade estab- 
lished by Shelikoff and Baranhoff. 

The natives say that many summers ago the 
Kadiak Islands were separated from the main- 
land by a very narrow channel. One day a big 
otter attempting to swim through was caught 
fast. He struggled until he widened the Sheli- 
koff Strait, when he swam triumphantly 
through. A bad Indian and his dog sent adrift 
on a big stone turned into the largest Kadiak, 
on the shore of which St. Paul is located. The 
Kadiakers are descended from the daughter of 
a great chief of the north, who, with her hus- 
band and dogs, was banished from her father's 
lodge. 

The forest on these islands consists of a few 
scattered groves. The grass, shrubs and mosses 
bathed in a perpetual fog are so brilliantly green 
as to dazzle the eye. 



Alaska 125 

The dug-out canoe disappears here and boats 
of sea Hon and wah-us skins stretched over 
frames of drift wood hghtly skim the blue 
waters of the cold sea. 

As we steam along through sunshine and fog, 
past glaciers, mountains and hords, " so wide 
the loneliness, so lucid the air," we are reminded 
that the Ancient Mariner sailed the blue Pacific. 
Now the sun drops into the sea, lighting it up 
with a luminous glow. With a tremor and a 
sparkle the purple waves glimmer red, now 
shadow to a violet hue, and now to a crimson 
blue. 

" Tries one, tries all, and will not stay- 
But flits from opal hue to hue." 

The volcanoes of Alaska! What a grand, 
what a wonderful panorama, as if you had rub- 
bed Aladdin's lamp. Expectation stood in awe 
when this giant upheaval was in progress. En- 
wrapped always in the mellow haze of white 
smoke and blue atmosphere, the cold clouds 
kissing their white brows, these sentinels old, 
like Wordsworth mountain, "look familiar with 
forgotten years." 

The prince of them all, Shishaldin, rises nine 
thousand feet, trailing his white robes in the 
blue sea. 



I 26 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

The seventy islands of the Aleutian chain lie 
along the coast for thousands of miles. These 
islands are treeless, but green with Arctic 
grasses and mosses. 

At Unalaska the Russians have a nicely built 
church. These Greek churches have no pews, 
the congregation standing and kneeling during 
the service. The priest in charge of this church 
speaks no English. These churches all pay an 
annual tribute to the patriarch in Moscow. This 
is all un-American. The Mary Lee Home, a 
Methodist mission, has a small school here. 

The Aleuts, a kind, gentle people, suffered 
much at the hands of their Russian masters in 
the past. The Aleuts living in sod huts are 
the Crofters of America. 

The fine flower of the fauna of Alaska is 
found in the valley of the Koyukuk River. Here 
tusks and bones of mastodons are found im- 
bedded in the sand banks and gravel bars. 

Since the discovery of gold in Alaska the In- 
dians have saved many lives. Born and reared 
amidst these wild surroundings, where winter 
white and hoary stands ever at the gate of the 
North, wagging his shaggy beard, they have 
partaken of the very nature of their own rugged 
mountains. The long Arctic nights and the in- 



Alaska 1 27 

tense cold have given these people hearts of steel 
and nuiscles of iron. 

Are you ill? Are you starving? No moun- 
tain is too high, no snow too deep, but one of 
these heroes will climb the one or plunge un- 
dauntedly through the other to bring you suc- 
cor. 

In the chilly Arctic sea there lies a mysterious 
island, the home of the ice goblin, who kicked 
it loose from, no one knows where, so the leg- 
end runs, and towed it to its present location. 

Its mountains are the highest, its gorges the 
deepest, and its fields and fiords the grandest in 
the world. 

It was a most magnificent island before the 
goblin stole it and dragged it away into the 
great ice fields of the North. It was clothed 
in rich verdure. Birds sang, flowers bloomed, 
and gay butterflies hovered over them. 

This was not at all to the goblin's taste, so 
he threw a sheet of ice over mountain, field and 
fiord. In his ice castle on the summit of the 
loftiest peak reigns the great ice goblin, send- 
ing out storms over sea and land, and pouring 
ice, snow and glaciers down over the island to 
his heart's content. 

In the Arctic region a dark cloud called the 



128 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

" loom of the water " overhangs where ever 
there is clear water. 

The Arctic sea ! The land of the midnight 
sun ! What a fascinating subject ! What an 
inexhaustible field for those three happy broth- 
ers, the poet, the painter and the scientist ! The 
land of jotums, penguins and ice packs. The 
land where night kisses morning. The realm 
of bright-haired Aurora and sable-robed Niobe. 

Returning along the self same route the mind 
never tires nor the eye wearies of the matchless 
scenery. Like a moving panorama, grand, 
austere, majestic, sublime. Here reigns Vidar, 
the god of silence. 

Magnificent fiords indent the coast. The 
dark mountains rise to a vast height, their snow 
crowned peaks standing out clear and sharp 
against the blue sky. 

Glaciers like huge giants clasp the mountains 
in their frosty arms, while their tears course 
down the mountain's weather-beaten cheek. 

Here and there a fleecy white cloud envelopes 
the summit of a mountain. A silvery thread 
comes creeping out over the rocks, loses itself 
in the pine forest on the slopes, emerges and 
with a boundless sweep plunges into the ocean. 

All this wild scenery from base to peak stands 
mirrored in the sea-green water of the fiord. 



CHAPTER X 

FAREWELL TO SKAGWAY 

At Skagway quite a number of miners came 
on board, bound for home. One hears from 
them many sad tales of the Klondike. One man 
aboard is dying of consumption and scurvy, 
contracted in the mining region. A purse is 
being made up to enable him to reach his home 
in Toronto, Canada. He hopes to live to see his 
wife and child. An impromptu entertainment 
in the salon netted one hundred and fifty dol- 
lars for the sick miner. 

Another tale not quite so pathetic is that of 
Mike McCarty, of San Francisco. He bought 
a claim and paid all the money he possessed for 
it. When he went to have the lease recorded 
he was told that it was not legal, that the prop- 
erty was not his, but still belonged to the Queen. 
" Damn the Quane," said Mike, '' I bought it 
and paid me money for it. The Quane has noth- 
ing to do with it at all." Then he was informed 
that some one had sold the claim to him under 
129 



130 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

false pretense and besides losing it he would get 
three months' imprisonment for insulting the 
Queen. " Faith and how could I insult the 
Ouane when I niver see her?" queried Mike. 
" All right," said the magistrate, " you go up 
for three months and the claim still belongs to 
the Queen." " Damn the Quane," said Mike, 
as he was taken away to his cell. Mr. McCarty 
is on his way home, a ragged, penniless but, a 
wiser man. 

These miners are bringing down a great deal 
of gold. One man who has made sixty-five 
thousand dollars in mining is taking two chil- 
dren to Seattle to be educated. 

One lady has her bustle stuffed with paper 
money, another her dress skirt interlined with 
five and ten dollar bills. 

Gold may be converted into paper money in 
Dawson City at the rate of fifteen dollars per 
ounce. Its actual value runs from sixteen to 
eighteen dollars per ounce. 

Living is quite high at Dawson, owing to the 
long distance over which freight must be car- 
ried. Coal oil sells at seven dollars for a five- 
gallon can, bread at fifty cents a loaf, beefsteak 
at two dollars a pound, candles at one dollar 
each. This is an item in household expenses, as 
during the winter months it is twilight only 



Farewell to Skagway i 3 i 

from eleven o'clock in the morning to two 
o'clock in the afternoon. Candles are used for 
lights in the mines. 

There is plenty of gold in Alaska, but one 
must go equipped to withstand the winters and 
prepared to work his claim properly. Mining 
in Colorado and California is not mining in the 
Klondike. For various reasons mining in the 
Klondike is much more expensive than in either 
of the other places. The British mounted po- 
lice are very vigilant, so that miners lose but 
little by thieving. 

We arrived at Juneau at eleven o'clock at 
night. The sun having just set it was still 
daylight. Nearly the entire population was at 
the wharf, eager to learn the news of the outside 
world. We repaired to the opera house, where 
we attended an impromptu political meeting. 
The mayor presided and Judge Delany, judge 
of Alaska under Cleveland, set forth in a forci- 
ble manner the needs of Alaska. The speaker 
said that this rapidly growing child seemed to 
be somewhat neglected by legislators, mainly 
because Congress does not know her needs. 
'' First of all," said he, '' we want the boundary 
line settled. We want every foot of land called 
for in our treaty with Russia in 1867. Until 



132 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

the discovery of gold in the Klondike England 
had never questioned her treaty made with 
Russia in 1825. But when gold is discovered 
up comes England and plants her flags on our 
territory. Our government sent out troops and 
forced them back to the original line. Now let 
Congress settle it once for all. It interferes 
with business and until this question is settled 
we don't know where we are ' at.' Next we 
want better school facilities. In Juneau we 
have two hundred and forty children of 
school age and room for only forty. This 
state of things exists all over Alaska. 
If Congress will give us half as much 
attention as is bestowed on the seal we promise 
to ask no more. We want some sort of govern- 
ment. We have no government and are not 
represented in Congress. Next we want more 
judges and more courts, instead of one judge 
and one district as now. W^e think that Alaska 
should be divided into three districts." 

Congressmen Warner, Dazill, Payne and 
Hull replied in short speeches and the meeting 
adjourned just at dawn, one o'clock. The opera 
house is lighted with electric lights and heated 
with a furnace. It has a parquet, dress circle and 




STEAMER yUEEN LEAVING JUNEAU. 



Farewell to Skagway 133 

boxes, and is a model from an architectural 
point of view. The acoustic properties of the 
hall are l)eyon(l criticism. 

Leaving- Juneau to carry on the struggle of 
leading Alaska to statehood, we board our good 
ship, the Queen, weigh anchor, and sail away. 

The upper deck is the salon, the reception 
hall, the library. Here we leave our steamer 
rugs and chairs. Here we come for a better 
view of the mountains and the sea. Here we 
meet our friends. Here we may take a book 
and, snugly ensconced, pass a quiet hour. ]\Iany 
of us, however, found it difficult to read a single 
line or to enjoy our rugs and chairs for long at 
a time, for just as your companion has tucked 
you all snugly in, exclamations of surprise and 
delight from some other part of the vessel lures 
you away, as the ship turns her prow this way 
and that, now steaming straight ahead, as if she 
meant to knock that mountain from its seat, 
and now quickly changing her course, giving 
us a magnificent view down a fiord. 

Everyone is reading " David Harum," and 
their comments are quite as interesting as the 
book itself. 

Sweet Sixteen — '' O, I do just love John and 



134 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Mary, l)iit that stupid old David is so tire- 
some." 

A critic — " Literature, indeed. Where's the 
plot? You couldn't find it with a telescope." 

A judge — " Served his good-for-nothing 
brother just right." 

Pious looking old gentleman — " Good man, 
David, but he lacked religion." 

Business man — '' Too soft hearted; ought to 
have kicked that idiot Timson out long before 
he did." 

An old farmer lays down the book and laughs 
until the tears roll down his weather-beaten 
cheeks. *' Now, there's a man as is a man. 
Knows all about farmin' and tradin' horses, 
he, he; traded horses myself, he, he, he; best 
book ever read, he, he, he." 

The first interesting sight to greet us on our 
way south was a group of small rocky islands, 
where more than a hundred eagles were fishing. 
Out they would fly by twos and threes, seize a 
fish in their talons, return to the rocks and pro- 
ceed to eat him. 

From Dixon's Entrance to Milbank Sound 
lie the Alps of America, a double panorama of 
unbroken beauty two hundred miles in length. 
Green slopes reflected in greener waters. The 




ALPS OF AMERICA. 



Farewell to Skagway 135 

sliores rise i)cri)cn(licii1ar1y from a tlionsand 
to fiflccii luindrcd feet, a])()ve wliicli snow-clad 
mountains rise as high again. Tall trees climb 
and cling to these rocky walls like vines and 
cascades come gliding out from snowlianks and 
go hurrying and singing to the sea, some like 
delicate silver threads winding down, others 
dashing mountain torrents. 

Late in the evening a mist Jotun rose out of 
the sea and enveloped us, and the ship lay at 
anchor for several hours. The next morning 
the sun shone clear and bright. The clouds lay 
on the water like a veil of rare old lace flecked 
with pearls, diamonds and sapphires, caught up 
here and there by unseen hands and wreathed 
about the mountains' snowy brows. 

Scene after scene of wild beauty greets the 
eye at every turn of the vessel's prow. Wild 
deer and fawn come down to the water's edge 
and stand gazing at our ship. We ran into a 
school of whales disporting in the water and 
scattered them right and left. Flock after flock 
of wild ducks skim the w^ater, to light in yonder 
cove. Flock after flock, battalion after battal- 
ion of wild geese swing along overhead, led 
by an old commodore, giving his commands 
with military precision, " Honkj honk," until 



136 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

the very air quivers with their joyous shouts 
and greetings. The cormorant is your true 
diver. Down he goes, a ripple, and the water 
is smooth again. While you are lost in specula- 
tion as to where he will reappear up he comes 
in some placid spot away beyond. If you guess 
that he will come up at your right he is sure to 
appear much further to your left. If you guess 
that he will remain under water two minutes 
he is likely to remain five. In fact he never 
does the thing you expect of him at all, but like 
Thoreau's loon on Walden pond, he'll lead you 
a merry chase if you board your canoe and at- 
tempt to follow him. 



CHAPTER XI 

WASHINGTON AND OREGON 

Seattle is now full of people on their way 
to Alaska, principally tourists, as the miners are 
now all coming down to rest or visit with rela- 
tives and to make preparations to return to the 
Klondike for the winter. Now that the Yukon 
and White Pass railroad is completed over the 
mountains to Lake Bennett the trip thus far is 
made in about four hours which formerly re- 
quired four weeks over a rough, rocky motm- 
tain trail. Freight rates are much cheaper 
than when the Indians carried the freight over 
at twenty-five cents per pound. Living will be 
cheaper in the Klondike and more mines will 
be worked. Success or failure waits on the 
mining industry as well as every other, and the 
man who would succeed in the field must study 
the business thoroughly. 

From a scientific |X)int of view Alaska is cer- 
tainly a wonderful country. From the point of 
development and commerce it gives promise of 
137 



138 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

becoming an important State. The possibilities 
in the way of development of its mineral re- 
sources and fisheries are incalculable. 

Seattle is deeply interested in the boundary 
question. This city conducts the bulk of the 
northwest trade to Alaska and were England 
given a port at Lynn canal, Seattle w^ould feel 
it keenly, as would Washington and other 
Western States. Congressman Warner says 
we have nothing to concede to Great Britain in 
the way of territory. That we stand on the 
right of possession acquired by the Russian pur- 
chase. England is anxious indeed to lay hands 
on the Porcupine mining district, which is con- 
sidered as rich as the Klondike. 

Traveling south from Seattle, we enter the 
grazing and fruit-growling district. Cattle 
graze on the hill-sides while the fruit farms 
occupy a more level tract. The fine cherries, 
known as the Rocky Mountain variety, are ripe 
now. There are three varieties ; the sweet, the 
sour and the blood-red, seen in our market. The 
currant farms are of equal interest. The cur- 
rants too are ripe. Boys and girls are employed 
as pickers. They enjoy the work and consider 
it great sport. The luscious fruit is placed in 
baskets and carried to the manager, who meas- 



Washington and Oregon 139 

iires it and sets down the amount opposite the 
picker's name. The fruit is much larger and 
juicier than in the Eastern States. 

Portland is the center of the hop belt. A hop 
field is quite as interesting, from a financial 
point of view, as a field of broom-corn. If the 
crop is a success it pays and pays well, but if a 
failure from blight or worm, it is likely to bank- 
rupt the owner. So you see that a hop ranch 
is an interesting speculation. The fields them- 
selves are beautiful, indeed. The varied shades 
of green, from the darker hues of the older 
leaves to the delicate sea green of the new ten- 
drils as they wreathe themselves about the tall 
poles, or twine about the wires which in many 
fields run from pole to pole, forming a beautiful 
green canopy from end to end of the large fields. 
Not the least interesting part of the hop ranches 
are the store and dry-houses. The hops are 
dried by hot air process, and are then baled and 
ready for shipment. King Revelry holds high 
carnival in the hop districts when the hops are 
ripe. Everyone looks forward to this harvest 
with the greatest of pleasure. The invalid, be- 
cause he would be healed ]\v the wonderful 
medicinal qualities of the hops; the well because 
he would have an outing and be earning good 



140 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

wages at the same time; the boys and girls, be- 
cause it is their annual festival of frolic and 
fun ; a time of camp-fires, ghost stories and 
witch tales. The real old-fashioned kind that 
chills your blood and makes you afraid of the 
dark and to go to bed lest the goblins get you 
" ef you don't watch out." The pickers camp 
in the fields and along the road sides. The hops 
are picked and placed in trays. Each picker 
may have a tray to himself or an entire family 
may use one tray. When the trays are full they 
are carried to the warehouse where they are 
weighed. 

Plank roads abound in Washington. One- 
half of the road is laid down in a plank walk, 
which is used when the roads are muddy, so 
that when the roads dry they are ready to travel 
without that wearing-down process wdiich is 
so trying to the nerves of both man and beast. 

Oregon is the most important state in the 
Union from an Indian's point of view, for it 
was here that the first man was created. It is 
needless to say that lie was a red man, and his 
Garden of Eden was at the foot of the Cascade 
mountains. That was long before the bad 
Manitou created the white man. 

Portland is a larger city than Seattle. There 



Washington and Oregon 141 

is more wealth here too. This city is the outlet 
for the immense crops of wheat raised in south- 
ern Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The fine 
peaches, plums, cherries, currants and apples 
grown here find their way to eastern markets. 
W'ood is so plentiful and cheap here that every 
man has his wood-pile. (The little coal used 
on the Pacific coast comes from Australia.) 
The enterprising wood sawyer rigs a small 
steam saw mill on a wagon, drives up to your 
door and without removing the mill from the 
wagon saws your wood while you wait. 

An interesting feature of river life in Port- 
land is the houseboat, moored to the shore. 
Sometimes they are floated miles down the river 
to the fishing grounds. Most of them are neat 
one-story cottages and nicely painted. Nearly 
always there is a tiny veranda where flowers in 
pots are blooming. 

An aged couple lives in a tiny houseboat, 
painted white, which is moored apart from 
the others. A veranda runs across the front 
of the boat and there are shelves on either 
side of the door. They have a fine collection of 
geraniums and just now the entire front of 
their water home is aglow with the blooms. 
Misfortune overtook these people and they 



142 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

adopted this mode of life because of its cheap- 
ness. Another boat was moored under the lea 
of the steep bank. Up the side of the bank a 
path led to the top, where the children have 
built a small pen from twigs and sticks. Inside 
the pen are five fat ducks, a pair of bantams and 
a pig. 

Portland is the third wealthiest city for its 
size in the w^orld. Frankfort on the Main takes 
first rank and Hartford, Conn., second. The 
climate is delightful. In summer the average 
temperature is eighty, with always a cool breeze 
blowing from the sea or the snow-capped moun- 
tains. 

The trip up the Columbia river to the dalles is 
a continuous panorama of beautiful scenes. On 
each side along the densely wooded shores are 
low green islands. Here and there barren rocks 
fifty to one hundred feet high stand, sentinel 
like, while over their rugged sides pour water- 
falls. Ruskin says that '' mountains are the be- 
ginning and the end of all natural scenery." 
This wonderful river inspired Br3^ant's 
'' Where rolls the Oregon," Oregon being the 
former name of this river — the Indian name. 

James Brice paid a tribute of admiration to 
the superb extinct volcanos, bearing snow 




GOVERNMENT LOCKS ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 



Washington and Oregon 143 

fields and i^laciers which rise out of the vast 
and somber forest on the banks of the Colum- 
bia river and the shores of Puget Sound. The 
Oregon chain of mountains from Shasta to 
Mount Tacoma is a line of extinct volcanos. 
A peculiar basaltic formation three hundred 
feet high stands at the gateway to the white 
capped Cascades of the Columbia river. Here 
a Lorelei might sit enthroned and lure to death 
with her entrancing music, sailors and fisher- 
men. The Cascades are so dangerous that the 
government has built locks at this point, 
through which every boat passes on its way np 
or down the river. The Indian legend as to 
the origin of the upheaval in the bed of the riv- 
er now called the Cascades runs in this wise: 
Years ago when the earth was young. Mount 
Hood was the home of the Storm Spirit and 
Mt. Adams of the Fire Spirit. Across the vale 
that spread between them stretched a mighty 
bridge of stone joining peak to peak. On this 
altar " the bridge of the gods," the Indian laid 
his offering of fish and dressed skins for Nanne 
the goddess of summer. These two spirits. 
Storm and Fire, both loving the fair goddess. 
grew jealous of each other and fell to fighting. 
A perfect gale of fire, lightning, splintered trees 



144 ^ Pacific Coast Vacation 

and rocks swept the bridge, but the brave god- 
dess courageously kept her place on this strange 
altar. In the deep shadows of the rocks, a 
warrior who had loved her long but hope- 
lessly, kept watch. The storm waxed stronger, 
the altar trembled, the earth to its very center 
shook. The young chief sprang forward and 
caught Nanne in his arms, a crash and the 
beautiful goddess and the brave warrior were 
buried under the debris forever. The Colum- 
bia now goes whirling, tossing and dashing 
over that old altar and hurrying on to the sea. 
The Spirits of Storm and Fire still linger in 
their old haunts but never again will they see the 
fair Nanne. The Indian invariably mixes a 
grain of truth with much that is wild, vv^eird and 
strange. It was Umatilla, chief of the Indians 
at the Cascades who brought about peace be- 
tween the white man and his red brother. He 
had lost all of his children by the plague except 
his youngest son, Black Eagle, his father 
called him, Benjamin the wliite man called 
him. Black Eagle was still a lad when 
an eastern man built a little schoolhouse by the 
river and began teaching the Indians. A warm 
friendship sprang up between teacher and pu])il. 
One sad day Black Eagle fell ill with the ])lague. 




RAPIDS, COLUMBIA RIVER. 



Washington and Oregon 145 

01(1 l^niatilla received the news that his S')n 
could not live, with all the stoicism of his race, 
hilt he went away alone into the wood, return- 
ing at the dawn of day. When he returned 
Black Eagle was dying. 

Slowly the pale lids closed over the sunken 
eyes, a breath and the brave lad had trusted his 
soul to the white man's God. 

The broken-hearted old chief sat the long 
night through by the corpse of his son. When 
morning came he called the tribe together and 
told them he wished to follow his last child to 
the grave, but he wanted them to promise 
him that they would cease to war with the 
white man and seek his friendship. At first 
many of the warriors refused, but Umatilla had 
been a good chief, and always had given them 
tine presents at the potlatches. Consulting 
among themselves they finally consented. 
When the grave was ready, the braves laid the 
body of Black Eagle to rest. Then said the old 
chief: '' My heart is in the grave with my son. 
Be always kind to the white man as you have 
promised me, and bury us together. One last 
look into the grave of him I loved and Uma- 
tilla too shall die." The next instant the gentle, 
kind hearted old chief dropi^ed to the gri^und 



146 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

dead. Peace to his ashes. They buried him as 
he had requested and a Httle later sought the 
teacher's friendship, asking him to guide them. 
That year saw the end of the trouble be- 
tween the Indians and the white race at the 
Dalles. 

The old chief still lives in the history of his 
country. Umatilla is a familiar name in Dalles 
City. The principal hotel bears the name of 
Umatilla. 

On either side of the river farm houses, or- 
chards and wheat fields dot the landscape. 

Salmon fishing is the great industry on the 
river. The wheels along both sides of the 
river have been having a hard time of it this 
season from the drift wood, the high water and 
the big sturgeon, which sometimes get into the 
wheels. A big sturgeon got into a wheel be- 
longing to the Dodon Company and slipped 
into the bucket, but was too large to be thrown 
out. It was carried around and around until it 
was cut to pieces, badly damaging the wheel. 
Now the law expressly states, as this is the 
close season for sturgeon, that when caught 
they must be thrown back in the water. " But 
what is the use," inquires the Dailv Nezvs, '* if 
they are dead? " 



FARM UN THE HANK OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER, HELOVV THE 
DALLES, OREGON. 



Washington and Oregon j 47 

A visit tt) a salmon cannery is full of interest. 
As the open season for salmon is from April 
first to August first, the huildinos though large 
are mere sheds. The work is all done hy China- 
men. The fish are tossed onto the wharf, 
where they are seized hy the men, who carry 
them in and throw them on to long tahles, chop 
off their heads, dress them and hold them, one 
fish at a time, under a stream of pure mountain 
water, which pours through a faucet over the 
long sink. Next they are thrown onto another 
tahle, where other Chinamen cut them up ready 
for the cans, all in much less time than it takes 
to tell about it. The tin is shipped in the sheet 
to the canneries and the cans are made on the 
ground. 

Astoria, the Venus of America, is head- 
quarters for the salmon fishing on the Columbia 
River. Joaquin ]\Iiller described it as a town 
which '' clings helplessly t(^ a humid hill side, 
that seems to want to glide into the great 
bav-like river.'* Much of it has long ago 
glided into the river. Usually the salmon 
canneries are built on the shores, but down 
here and on toward the sea, where the 
river is some seven miles wide, thev are 
built on piles in mid stream. Nets are 



148 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

used quite as mucli as wheels in salmon fishing. 
Sometimes a hungry seal gets into the nets, eat- 
ing an entire " catch," and playing havoc with 
the net. Up toward the Dalles on the Wash- 
ington side of the river, are three springs. 
These springs have long been considered by the 
Indians a veritable fountain of youth. Long be- 
fore the coming of the white man they carried 
their sick and aged to these springs, across the 
'' Bridge of the Gods." Just above Dalles City 
lies the dalles which obstruct navigation for 
twelve miles. Beyond this point the river is 
navigable two hundred miles. Here, too, leg- 
ends play an important part. 

When the volcanoes of the northwest were 
blazing forth their storm of fire, ashes and lava, 
a tribe known as the Fire Fiends walked the 
earth and held high revelry in this wild country. 
When Mount Ranier had ceased to burn the 
Devil called the leaders of the tribe together 
one day and proposed that they follow nature's 
mood and live more peaceably, and that they 
quit killing and eating each other. A howl met 
this proposal. The Devil deemed it wise just at 
this moment to move on, so off he set, a thou- 
sand Fire Fiends after him. Now his majesty 
could easily whip a score of Fiends, but 



Washington and Oregon 149 

he was no match for a thousand, lie lashed 
his wondrous tail ahout and hroke a great 
chasm in the ground. Many of the Fiends fell 
in, but the greater part leaped the rent and came 
on. A second time the ponderous tail came 
down with such force that a large ravine was 
cracked out of the rocks, the earth breaking 
away into an inland sea. The flood engulfed 
the Fiends to a man. The bed of the sea is now 
a prairie and the three strokes of the Devil's tail 
are plainly visible in the bed of the Columbia at 
the dalles. 

Just across the river from Dalles City on a 
high bluff, stands a four story building, the 
tower in the center running two stories higher. 
The building stands out there alone, a monu- 
ment to the enterprise of one American. He 
called it a shoe factory, but no machinery was 
ever put in position. After the pseudo shoe 
factory was completed false fronts of other 
buildings were set up and the rugged bluffs laid 
out in streets. An imaginary bridge spanned 
the broad river. Electric lights, also imagi- 
nariy, light up this imaginary city. The pic- 
tures which this genius drew of his town 
showed street cars running on the principal 
streets and a busy throng of people passing to 



150 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

and fro. As to the shoe factory, it was turning 
out thousands of imaginary shoes every day. 
Now this rogue, when ah was ready, carried the 
maps and cuts of his town to the east, where 
he sold the factory and any numher of lots at 
a high figure, making a fortune out of his paper 
town. 

From Dalles City across the country to 
Prineville in the Bunch Grass country, a dis- 
tance of a hundred miles, the country is prin- 
cipally basalt, massive and columnar, present- 
ing many interesting geological features. Deep 
gorges separate the rolling hills which are cov- 
ered with a soil that produces bunch grass in 
abundance. This same ground produces fine 
wheat and rye. This is a good sheep country 
and wool is one of the principal products. 

Crater Lake is haunted by witches and 
wizards. Ghosts, with seven leagued boots, 
hold high revelry on its shores on moonlight 
nights, catching any living thing that comes 
their way and tossing it into the deep waters of 
the lake, wdiere the water devils drag it under. 

We spent two delightful days on an Oregon 
farm near Hubbard, thirty miles south of Port- 
land. 

We drove from Hubbard in the morning to 




SCENE ON AN OREGON FARM IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 



Washington and Oregon 151 

Puddin river. The bridge was l^einj^ repaired, 
so we walked across, our man carrying our 
traps. We had just passed Whisky hiU when 
we met our friend Mr. Kauffman and his 
daughter, driving down the road. We were 
warmly welcomed and after an exchange of 
greetings we drove back with them to their 
home, where we partook of such a dinner as 
only true hospitality can offer. 

Mr. Kauffman owns three hundred acres of 
fine farming land. There is no better land any- 
where on the Pacific coast than in this beauti- 
ful valley of the Willamette river. Beautiful 
flowers and shrubs of all sorts in fine contrast 
to the green law^n surround the house, which is 
painted white, as Ruskin says all houses should 
be when set among green trees. Near by is 
a spring of pure mountain water. In the 
woods pasture beyond the spring pheasants fly 
up and away at your approach. Tall ferns nod 
and sway in the wind, while giant firs beautiful 
enough for the home of a hamadryad lend an 
enticing shade at noontime. 

If any part of an Oregon farm can be more 
interesting than another it is the orchard, 
where apple, peach, plum, pear and cherry 
trees vie with each other in producing perfect 



152 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

fruit. Grapes, too, reach perfection in this de- 
lightful climate. One vine in Mr. Kauffman's 
vineyard measures eighteen inches in circum- 
ference. The dryhouse where the prunes are 
dried for market is situated on the south side of 
the orchard. No little care and skill is required 
to dry this fruit properly. 

Wednesday morning we reluctantly bade 
good-by to our kind hostess and departed with 
Mr. Kauffman for Woodburn, where we took 
the train for Portland. The drive of ten miles 
took us through a fine farming district. Here 
farms may be seen in all stages of advancement 
from the " slashing " process, which is the first 
step in making a farm in this wooded country, 
to the perfect field of wheat, rye, barley or hops. 

Arriving at Woodburn we lunched at a tidy 
little restaurant. The train came all too soon 
and we regretfully bade our host farewell. 

The memory of that delightful visit will 
linger with us as long as life shall last. 

There are few regions in the West to-day 
where game is as abundant as in times past. 
Yet there are a few spots where sport of the 
old time sort may be had, and the lake district 
of Southern Oregon is one of these. Here, deer 
and bear abound as in days of yore, while 





ROADWAY IX OREGON. 



Washington and Oregon 153 

gTouse, s(iuirrcl, mallard dnck and partridge 
are most i)lentiful. 

Fort Klamath lake is a beautiful sheet of 
water, sixty miles long by thirty wide. Among 
the tules in the marshes the mallard is at home, 
while grouse and nut brown partridge by the 
thousands glide through the grass. Fish lake 
speaks for itself, while the very name. Lake of 
the Woods, carries with it an enticing invita- 
tion to partake of its hospitality and royal sport. 

Travel is an educ ator. I t gives one a 
broader view of life and one soon comes to 
realize that this great world swinging in space 
is a vast field where millions and millions of 
souls are traveling each his own road, all doing 
different things, all good, all interesting. 

In our journeyings we have met many inter- 
esting people, but none more interesting than 
Miss McFarland, whom we met on our voyage 
up the Columbia river. Miss McFarland was 
the first American child born in Juneau, 
Alaska. 

Her only playmates were Indian children. 
She speaks the language like a native and was 
for years her father's interpreter in his mis- 
sion work. She has lived the greater part of 
her life on the Hoonah islands. The Hoonah 



1 54 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Indians are the wealthiest Indians in America. 
Having all become Christians they removed 
the last totem pole two years ago. 

Reminiscences of Miss McFarland's child- 
hood days among the Indians of Alaska would 
make interesting reading. 

The old people as well as the children attend 
the mission schools. One day an old chief 
came in asking to be taught to read. He came 
quite regularly until the close of the school for 
the summer vacation. The opening of the 
school in the autumn saw the old man in his 
place, but his eyes had failed. He could not see 
to read and was in despair. Being advised to 
consult an optician he did so and triumphantly 
returned with a pair of " white man's eyes." 

Upon one occasion Miss McFarland's mother 
gave a Christmas dinner to the old people of her 
mission. It is a custom of the Indians to carry 
away from the feast all of the food which has 
not been eaten. One old man had forgotten his 
basket, but what matter, Indian ingenuity came 
to his aid. Stepping outside the door he re- 
moved his coat and taking off his dress shirt 
triumphantly presented it as a substitute in 
which to carry home his share of the good 
things of the feast. 



Washington and Oregon 155 

Tliesc Indians l)elieve that earthquakes are 
caused hy an old man who shakes the earth. 
Compare this with Norse Mythology. When 
the gods had made the unfortunate Loke fast 
with strong cords, a serpent was suspended 
over him in such a manner that the venom fell 
ir^to his face causing him to writhe and twist so 
violently that the whole earth shook. 

When Miss McFarland left her home in 
Hoonah last fall to attend Mill's college every 
Indian child in the neighborhood came to say 
good-by. They l)rought all sorts of presents 
and with many tears bade her a long farewell. 
*' Edna go away? " " Ah! Oh! Me so sorry." 
*' Edna no more come l^ack? " " We no more 
happy now Edna gone," " No more happy. Oh ! 
Oh ! " " Edna no more come back." " Oh, good- 
by, Edna, good-by." 

Every Christmas brings Miss McEarland 
manv tokens (^f affection from her former play- 
mates. Pin cushions, beaded slippers, ]:)askets, 
rugs, beaded portemonnaies. Always some- 
thing made wnth their own hands. 

Miss McEarland's name, through that of her 
parents, is indissolubly connected with Indian 
advancement in Alaska. 

One meets curious people, too, in traveling. 



156 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

In the parlor at the hotel one evening a party 
of tourists were discussing the point of extend- 
ing their trip to Alaska. The yeas and nays 
were about equal when up spoke a flashily 
dressed little woman, '' Well," said she, '' what 
is there to see when you get there?" That 
woman belongs to the class with some of our 
fellow passengers, both men and women who 
sat wrapped in furs and rugs from breakfast to 
luncheon and from luncheon to dinner reading 
" A Woman's Revenge," '' Blind Love," and 
" Maude Percy's Secret," perfectly oblivious to 
the grandest scenery on the American conti- 
nent, scenery which every year numbers of for- 
eigners cross continents and seas to behold. 

One of our fellow travelers is a German 
physician who is spending the summer on the 
coast. He is deeply interested in the woman 
question in America. He is quite sure that 
American women have too much liberty. 
'' Why," said he, '' they manage everything. 
They rule the home, the children and their hus- 
bands, too. Why, madam, it is outrageous. 
Now surely the man ought to be the head of 
the house and manage the children and the wife 
too, she belongs to him, doesn't she? " 



Washington and Oregon 157 

" Not in America," we replied, " the men are 
too busy, and besides they enjoy havino^ their 
homes managed for them. Then, too, the wo- 
men are too independent." 

'' That is just what I say, madam, they have 
too much hberty, they are too independent. 
They go everywhere they Hke, do everything 
they Uke and ask no man nothings at all." 

My German friend evidently thinks that un- 
less this wholesale independence of women is 
checked our country will go to destruction. 
The war with Spain does not compare with it. 
I am w^ondering yet if our critic's wife is one 
of those independent American women. 

Just below Portland on the banks of the 
Willamette river and connected with Portland 
by an electric street railway stands the first 
capital of Oregon, Oregon City, the stronghold 
of the Hudson Bay Company, which aided 
England in so nearly wrenching that vast terri- 
tory from the United States. 

This quaint old town is rapidly taking on the 
marks of age. The warehouse of that mighty 
fur company stands at the wharf, weather 
beaten and silent. No busy throng of trappers, 
traders and Indians awaken its echoes with 



158 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

barter and jest. No fur loaded canoe glides 
down the river. No camp fire smoke curls up 
over the dark pine tops. 

The Indian with his blanket, the trapper with 
his snares and the trader with his wares have 
all disappeared before the march of a newer 
civilization. The camp fire has given place to 
the chimney; the blanket to the overcoat; the 
trader to the merchant and the game preserves 
to fields of waving grain. 

The lonely old warehouse looks down in 
dignified silence on the busy scenes of a city full 
of American push and go. 

All the forenoon the drowsy porter sat on his 
stool at the door of the sleeper, ever and anon 
peering down the aisle or scanning the features 
of the passengers. 

What could be the cause of his anxiety? 
Was he a detective in disguise? Had some 
one been robbed the night before? Had some 
one forgotten to pay for services rendered? 
Had that handsome man run away with the 
beautiful fair haired woman at his side? 
Visions of the meeting with an irate father at 
the next station dawned on the horizon. 

The train whirled on and still the porter kept 
up his vigilance. 



Washington and Oregon 159 

It was nearly noon when 1 stepped across to 
my own section and picked np my shoes. The 
sleepy porter was wide awake now. His face 
was a study. For one hrief moment I was sure 
that he was a detective and that he thought 
he had caught the rogue for whom he was 
looking. 

"Them your shoes, Madam?" said he ap- 
proaching me. 

" Yes." 

" Why, Madam, I've been waitin here all 
mornin' for the owner to come and get 'em." 

Ah, now I understood. He was responsi- 
ble for the shoes and he thought that they be- 
longed to a man. Fifty cents passed into the 
faithful black hands and my porter disappeared 
with just a hint of a smile on his face. 



CHAPTER XII 

OFF FOR CALIFORNIA 

We left Portland on the night train for San 
Francisco. I took my gull, the Captain we 
called him, into the sleeper with me. He was 
asleep when I placed his basket under my berth, 
but about midnight he awoke and squawked 
frightfully. 

I rang for the porter but before he arrived 
the Captain had awakened nearly every one in 
the car. Angry voices were heard inquiring 
what that '' screeching, screaming thing," was. 

An old gentleman thrust his red night capped 
head out of his berth next to mine and angrily 
demanded of me where that nasty beast came 
from. When I politely told him he said he 
wished that I had had the good sense to leave it 
there. Then he said something that sounded 
dreadfully like swear words, but being such an 
old gentleman I've no doubt that my ears de- 
ceived me. 

At any rate it was something about sea gulls 

i6o 



Off for California i 6 1 

in general and my own in particular. His red 
flannel cap disappeared and presently I heard 
him snoring away up in G. Now my poor 
gull only squawked on low C. After that the 
Captain traveled in the baggage car with the 
trunks and packages. 

Traveling south from Portland one passes 
farms and orchards until the foot of the Sierra 
Nevada range is reached. Most of the farms 
are well improved. Many of the orchards are 
bearing, while others are young. 

Here and there in the mountains are cattle 
ranches. These mountains are not barren, 
rugged rocks like the Selkirks of Alaska. Here 
there is plenty of pasture to the very summit of 
the mountains. 

Wolf Creek valley is one vast hay field. Up 
we go until the far-famed Rogue River valley 
is reached. This noble valley lying in the heart 
of the Sierras reminds one of the great Mo- 
hawk valley of New York. 

Ashland is the center of this prosperous dis- 
trict. The Southern State Normal School is 
located here. 

The seventh annual assembly of the Southern 
Oregon Chautauqua will convene in Ashland in 
July. This assembly is always well attended. 



1 62 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Farmers bring their families and camp on the 
grounds. The program contains the names of 
musicians prominent on the coast. Among the 
lecturers are the names of men and women 
prominent in their special fields. Frank Beard, 
the noted chalk talk lecturer, will be present. 
So you see that the wild and woolly w^est is not 
here, but has moved on. to the Philippines. 

When the passenger train stops at the station 
of Ashland a score of young fruit venders 
swarm on the platform, crying plums, cherries, 
peaches and raspberries at fifteen cents a box. 
When the train-bell rings fruit suddenly falls to 
ten cents and when the conductor cries " All 
aboard " fruit takes a downward plunge to five 
cents a box, but the fruit is all so delicious that 
you do not feel in the least cheated in having 
paid the first price. '' Look here, you young 
rascal," said a newspaper man, who travels 
over the road frequently to one of the young 
fruit dealers, " I bought raspberries of you yes- 
terday at five cents a box." '' O no you 
didn't, mister, never sold raspberries at five 
cents a box in my life sir, pon honor." In less 
than three minutes this young westerner was 
crying '' Nice ripe raspberries here, five cents a 
box." '' Why," said I, *' I thought you told 




CLIMBING THE SHASTA RANGE. 



Off for California 163 

the g-entleman that you never sold berries at five 
cents a box." " No, Madam, I didn't, pon 
honor," and the Httle rogue really looked in- 
nocent. 

Leaving Ashland with three big engines we 
climb steadily up four thousand one hundred 
and thirty feet to the summit of the range. 

The Rogue River valley spreads out below us 
in a grand panorama of wheat, oats, barley 
fields and orchards. Down the southern slope 
the commercial interest centers in large saw- 
mills and cattle ranches. 

Off to the east lie the lava beds where Gen. 
Canby and his companions were so treacherously 
assassinated by the Modoc Indians under the 
leadership of Captain Jack and Scar Faced 
Charley. 

Crossing the Klatmath River valley the 
dwelling place in early days of the Klatmath 
Indians, the engmes make merry music as they 
puff, puff, puff in a sort of Rhunic rhyme to the 
whir of the wheels as they groan and 
climb three thousand nine hundred feet 
to the summit of the Shasta range. There 
is something wonderfully fascinating about 
mountain climbing. Whether by rail over a 
route laid out by a skilled engineer; on the back 



164 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

of a donkey over a trail just wide enough for 
the feet of the httle beast, or staff in hand you 
go slowly up over rocks and bowlders, or 
around them, clinging to trees and shrubs for 
support. The very fact that the train may 
without a moment's notice plunge through a 
trestle or go plowing its way down the mount- 
ain side; the donkey lose his head and take a 
false step; the shrub break or a bowlder come 
tearing down the rock-ribbed mountain and 
crush your life out, thrills the blood and holds 
the mind enthralled as a bird is held enchanted 
1)y the charm of the pitiless snake. 

Throughout the mountains mistletoe, that 
mystic plant of the Druids, hangs from the 
limbs and trunks of tall trees. 

It was with an arrow made from mistletoe 
that Hoder slew the fair Baldur. 

All day long snow-covered Alt. Shasta has 
been in sight and toward evening we pass near 
it on the southern side of the range and stop 
at the Shasta Soda Springs. The principal 
spring is natural soda water. This is the 
fashionable summer resort of San Francisco 
people, who come here to get w^arm, the climate 
of that city being so disagreeable during July 




THE HIGHEST TRESTLE IN THE WORLD, NEAR MLTR'S PEAK, 
SHASTA RANGE. 



OfF for California 165 

and August that people are glad to leave town 
for the more genial air of the mountains. 

It certainly is niUl to have people living in the 
heart of a great city ask yon during these two 
months if it is hot out in the country. " Out in 
the country " means forty or fifty miles out, 
where there is plenty of heat and sunshine. At 
Shasta Springs, however, the weather is cooler. 
The climate is delightful, the water refreshing 
and the strawberries beyond compare. Bote- 
ler, known as a lover of strawberries, once said 
of his favorite fruit : '' Doubtless God could 
have made a better berry, but doubtless God 
never did." 

Just beyond the springs stand the wonderful 
Castle Crags. Hidden in the very depths of 
these lofty Crags lies a beautiful lake. Tliis 
strange old castle of solid granite, its towers 
and minarets casting long shadows in the moon- 
light for centuries, is not without its historic in- 
terest, though feudal baron nor chatelaine 
dainty ever ruled over it. Joaquin Miller, in 
the " Battle of Casde Crag," tells the tale of its 
border history. 

Not far away at the base of Battle Rock a 
bloody battle was once fought between a few 



1 66 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

whites and the Shasta Indians on one side and 
the Modoc Indians on the other. 

The Indians of CaUfornia say that Mt. 
Shasta was the first part of the earth created. 
Surely it is grand enough and beautiful enough 
to lay claim to this pre-eminence. When the 
waters receded the earth became green with 
vegetation and joyous with the song of birds, 
the Great Manitou hollowed out Mt. Shasta for 
a wigwam. The smoke of his lodge fires 
(Shasta is an extinct volcano) was often seen 
pouring from the cone before the white man 
came. 

Kmukamtchiksh is the evil spirit of the world. 
He punishes the wicked by turning them into 
rocks on the mountain side or putting them 
down into the fires of Shasta. 

Many thousands of snows ago a terrible 
storm swept Mt. Shasta. Fearing that his 
wigwam would be turned over, the Great Spirit 
sent his youngest and fairest daughter to the 
crater at the top of the mountain to speak to the 
storm and command it to cease lest it blow the 
mountain away. She was told to make haste 
and not to put her head out lest the Wind catch 
her in his powerful arms and carry her away. 

The beautiful daughter hastened to the sum- 



Off for California 167 

mit of the penk, Init never having seen the ocean 
when it was lashed into a fury hy the storm 
wind, she tlioiight to take just one peep, a fatal 
peep it proved. The Wind caught her by her 
long red hair and dragged her down the 
mountain side to the timber below. 

At this time the grizzly bears held in fee all 
the surrounding country, even down to the sea. 
In those magic days of long ago they walked 
erect, talked like men and carried clubs with 
which to slay their enemies. 

At the time of the great storm a family of 
grizzlies was living in the edge of the forest 
just below the snow^ line. When the father 
grizzly returned one day from hunting he saw 
a strange little creature sitting under a fir tree 
shivering with cold. The snow gleamed and 
glowed where her beautiful hair trailed over it. 
He took her to his wife who was very wise in 
the lore of the mountains. She knew who the 
strange child was but she said nothing about it 
to old father grizzly, but kept the little creature 
and reared her with her own children. 

When the oldest grizzly son had quite grow^n 
up his mother proposed to him that he marry 
her foster daughter who had now grown to be a 
beautiful woman. 



1 68 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Many deer were slain l)y the old father 
grizzly and his sons for the marriage feast. 
All the grizzly families throughout the 
mountains were hidden to the feast. 

When the guests had eaten of the deer and 
drank of the wine distilled from bear berries 
and elder berries in moonlight at the foot of 
Mt. Shasta, when the feast was over, they all 
united and built for their princess a magnifi- 
cent wigwam near that of her father. This is 
'* Little Mt. Shasta." 

The children of this strange pair were a new 
race, — the first Indians. 

Now, all this time the great spirit was ig- 
norant of the fate of his beloved daughter, but 
\vhen the old mother grizzly came to die she felt 
that she could not lie peacefully in her grave 
until she had restored the princess to her father. 

Inviting all the grizzlies in the forest to be 
present at the lodge of the princess, she sent her 
oldest grandson wrapt in a great white cloud to 
the summit of Mt. Shasta to tell the Great 
Spirit where his daughter lived. 

Now when the great Manitou heard this he 
was so happy he ran down the mountain side so 
fast that the snow melted awav under his feet. 



OfF for California 169 

To this day you can see his footprints in the 
lava among the rocks on the side of the 
mountain. 

The grizzhes by thousands met him and 
standing with clul)S at " attention " greeted him 
as he passed to the lodge of his daughter. 

But when he saw the strange children and 
learned that this was a new race he was angry 
and looked so savagely at the old mother grizzly 
that she died instantly. The grizzlies now set 
up a dreadful wail, but he ordered them to keep 
quiet and to get dowm on their hands and knees 
and remain so until he should return. He 
never returned, and to this day the poor doomed 
grizzlies go on all fours. 

A wonderful feat of jugglery, but a greater 
was that of the Olympian goddess who changed 
the beautiful maiden Callisto into a bear, which 
Jupiter set in the heavens, and where she is to 
be seen every night, beside her son the Little 
Bear. 

The angry Manitou turned his strange 
grandchildren out of doors, fastened the door 
and carried his daughter away to his own wig- 
wam. 

The Indians to this dav believe that a bear 



170 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

can talk if you will only sit still and listen to 
him. The Indians will not harm a bear. Now 
for the meaning of those queer little piles- of 
stones one sees so frequently in the Shasta 
mountains. If an Indian is killed by a bear he 
is burned on the spot where he fell. Every In- 
dian who passes that way will fling a stone at 
the fated place to dispel the charm that hangs 
over it. 

" All that wide and savage water-shed of the 
Sacramento tributaries to the south and west of 
Mt. Shasta affords good bear hunting at almost 
any season of the year — if you care to take the 
risks. But he is a velvet-footed fellow, and 
often when and where you expect peace you 
will find a grizzly. Quite often when and where 
you think that you are alone, just when you 
begin to be certain that there is not a single 
grizzly bear in the mountains, when you begin 
to breathe the musky perfume of Mother 
Nature as she shapes out the twilight stars in 
her hair, and you start homeward, there stands 
your long lost bear in your path ! And your 
bear stands up! And your hair stands up! 
And you wish you had not lost him ! And you 
wish you had not found him ! And you start 



Off for California 171 

for home! And yon j^o the other way glad, 
glad to the heart if he does not come tearing 
after you." * 

Downward from Mt. Shasta flows the Sac- 
ramento river. For thirty miles it goes tum- 
bling over bowlders and granite ledges on its 
w^ay to the sea. In mid-summer the Sacra- 
mento canon is a paradise of unbrageous 
beauty, a region of forest and groves, of leafy 
shrubs, delicate ferns, mosses and beautiful 
flowers, of roaring, tumbling rivers, shining 
lakelets and dancing trout streams. 

Up in the mountains the dewberries are 
ripe. They are about the size of currants, but 
farther down the slope they are larger. Black- 
berries are also plentiful, also the black rasp- 
berry, called by the Indians succotash. 

The coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada 
range are the most beautiful in the world. 
Here, where the granite domes which are so 
striking a feature of the Sierras, we find the 
most beautiful little meadows lying on the tops 
of the dividing ridges or on their sloping sides. 
These meadows are all aglow with wild flowers, 
rank columbines, stately larkspur, daisies and 



Joaquin Miller, A Bear Hunt i?i the Fifties. 



172 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

the lovely lupines, beds of blue and white vio- 
lets, many strange grasses and beautiful sedges, 
and the glory of them all, the lily. 

The magnificent sunset of the mountains, the 
afterglow resting on their summits, the many 
clouds of various hues, borrowing the tints of 
the rainbow, 

" That glory mellower than a mist 
Of pearl dissolved with amethyst," 

resting on the snowy peaks, lend an enchant- 
ment to the scene that might entice the elf 
king Oberon himself and all his crew of Pixies 
and Imps back to earth. 

Doubtless God might have created a more 
magnificent range of mountains than the Sier- 
ras, but doubtless God never did. 

" If thou art worn and hard beset 
With sorrows thou wouldst forget, 
Go to the woods and hills." 

— Longfellow. 

" There ain't nothing like fresh air and the 
smell of the woods. There's always a smell 
from trees dead, or living, and the air is better 
where the woods be." 



CHAPTER XIII 

SAN FRANCISCO 

The Pacific slope has a wonderful flora 
which has been but little studied. Here won- 
derful ferns and laurels grow the whole year 
round. With few exceptions all the plants are 
new and strange. One of the most beautiful 
trees on the coast is the madrona, graceful and 
stately, its red trunk contrasting oddly with its 
green foliage. The dandelion is here but 
puts on such airs and graces that unless you are 
quite familiar with him you would never take 
him for the common weed he is at home. He 
grows several in a cluster on a delicate stem 
twelve to fifteen inches long. He is the pale 
yellow of California gold. His white head 
when he goes to seed is more frowsy than with 
us, and the seeds are a little dififerent in shape, 
but he wings himself over onto people's lawns 
with the agility and grace of his Illinois 
brother. 

There are many points of interest in San 
173 



174 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Francisco and not the least of these is China 
Town, which has a population of thirty thou- 
sand people. A Chinese school is a place 
of interest. The boys (girls are not sent 
to school in China Town) stand at long- 
tables running across the room. The pupils 
all study aloud. Besides their books each 
pupil is provided with a small camel's 
hair brush and a pot of ink with which 
he writes out his lessons in the characters of his 
native language. The paper used is very red, 
while the ink is very black. This is a priest's 
school and these little aknond-eyed Orientals 
in their quaint caps and gowns are all study- 
ing for the priesthood. They laugh and whis- 
per too, when the teacher's attention is engaged 
elsewhere, just like American children. One 
boy painted a Chinese character on another's 
face, then they all laughed and the first boy 
wiped it angrily off. The teacher had not seen 
it, so no one was punished. The teacher, a fine 
looking man in the native dress of his country, 
with a few strokes of his brush painted for us 
on red paper an advertisement of his school. 
Teacher and pupils bowed a good morning as 
we departed. 

At the Christian Mission the Chinese minis- 



San Francisco 175 

ter, a man of much intelligence, greeted us cor- 
dially, asking where we were from. He knew 
where Chicago was and something about it. 
He was sorry that the services were over and 
asked us to come again next Sunday at ten 
o'clock. 

The tea house, which is the club room, is the 
finest oriental club house in America. The 
beautiful tables and chairs are all inlaid with 
marble and pearl. 

The Joss House, which is the temple, is mag- 
nificently adorned and decorated. A cup of 
tea, which of course ^^aporates, is kept setting 
in front of the god, but his worshipers^ believe 
he drinks it. Lamps and incense are kept burn- 
ing all the time to keep the evil spirits away. 
The worshipers come and go at all hours. No 
regular services are held except at New Years 
and on feast days. Upon request, however, the 
priest will accompany an individual to the tem- 
ple and conduct services for him. 

The home of an aristocratic Chinaman is full 
of interest to an American. In the home in 
which we visited everything except the chairs 
came from China, and these looked oddlv out 
of place against the background of rich ori- 
ental draperies, and the quaint costumes of our 



176 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

hostess and her daughter; Our hostess was a 
large 'woman, l)ut she proudly displayed her 
tiny feet, the mark of true aristocracy. She 
hobbled bravely about on these feet only four 
inches long and did the honors of her house. 

When in exchange for the compliment of 
seeing these aristocratic feet I quite as proudly 
thrust out my American ones encased in No. 6 
broad-soled mountain climbers, the dear lady 
bowed and smiled, but made no comment. The 
six-year-old daughter of the house was suffer- 
ing the tortures of having her feet bound. 
When the Chinese become Christians they 
abandon this practice. 

In an opium den an old smoker showed us 
how he smoked the fateful drug. He first 
took a large lump of opium on a long needle 
and holding it in the flame of a candle, burnt 
the poison out of it, then thrust it into the cup 
of his long pipe, the tiny opening of which he 
held near the lighted candle, sucking the blue 
smoke into his lungs and exhaling it through 
his nostrils. 

In the drug store the druggist was putting 
up a ])rescription for a sick Chinaman who was 
standing near. He took down four different 
bottles and took some roots out of each. Tell- 




STREET SCENE IX CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO. 



San Francisco 



177 



ing the man to make a tea of them he tied them 
up and handed tliem over the counter and re- 
ceived his pay. There were Hzards and toads 
there also to be made into medicine. 

In the jewelry store four goldsmiths were at 
work making rings, bracelets and earrings, all 
by hand. 

In the market all sorts of fish and birds were 
offered for sale. A big fat pig roasted whole 
looked tempting indeed. Beans, which had 
been kept damp until they had sprouted, the 
sprouts an inch to two inches long were ready 
to be made into a tempting salad. There were 
baskets of green watermelons the size of an or- 
ange. 

This being Sunday the streets were thronged 
with Chinese in native holiday dress, who 
sauntered leisurely along or gathered in groups 
chatting away in their native tongue. Their 
long queues tied with black ribbon hung down 
the back or were tucked into the side pocket of 
the tunic. Here and there an Oriental who had 
imbibed some of the American energy hurried 
along dressed in the somber business suit of the 
American, his closely cropped hair, mustache 
and American shoes making a strange contrast 
to the groups on the corner. 



I'/S A Pacific Coast Vacation 

There is no Sunday in the calendar of these 
ahiiond-eyed Orientals, — the stores, markets 
and opium dens were all open. 

Presently the weird music of the Salvation 
Army broke on our ears. Down the street 
came the Chinese Salvation band, dressed in 
American costume, the leader carrying the 
American flag. 

When the first Chinese came to Califor- 
nia the Indians were very curious about them. 
A dispute arose among them as to what coun- 
try the strangers might hail from, and whether 
or not they were Indians. 

The Indians, wise as the Puritans of old, 
would apply the water test. If the accused 
swam they were witches, if they drowned they 
were innocent. 

One day a party of Indians met a partv of 
Chinamen approaching a little stream, 

The strangers approached the bridge and 
started across. The Indians too filed across and 
meeting the Chinamen in mid-stream pushed 
two of them into the angry, spooming current 
below. The test was conclusive. They could 
not swim. They were not Indians. 

In the fire department are exhibited two 



San Francisco 179 

queer old eng^ines. One was purchased in New 
York in 1849 ^^'^^^ l)ronoiit around the Horn. 
The other is a liand enj^ine a little more modern 
in make. These engines are carefully guarded 
and never taken out exce])t on rare occasions. 

Down toward the wharf there stands a 
(|uaint old huildino". the material for which 
was hrought around Cape Horn in 1850. This 
was San Francisco's first hotel. 

In the wikl days of the early history of this 
little adohe city, nestled among the dunes and 
sand hills, Mount Diable looked down on weird 
scenes on the plaza in front of this old hotel. 
Here the famous vigilance committee meted out 
justice to rogue and outlaw alike. 

In the early history of California the eighth 
day of July, 1846, stands out conspicuously. 
On that day the Brooklyn dropped her anchor 
off the island of Yerba Buena, the " good herb," 
and flung the Stars and Stripes to the breeze. 
At noon Captain Montgomery unfurled the 
American flag on the plaza. 

In that good ship came a party of pseudo 
Mormons, under the leadership of " Bishop " 
Brannan, the valiant leader of the Vigilance 
Society. This colony of Latter Day saints 



i8o A Pacific Coast Vacation 

brought stout hearts, keen wits, strong arms, 
pluck, plenty of money and a printing press. 
Later they quarreled with their bishop and went 
to law with him and thus gave up their scheme 
of Mormon colonization and made sport of 
Brigham Young himself in their tents on the 
beach. 

But they gave to San Francisco her first 
newspaper pledged to eschew all sectarian 
dogmas; her first prayer meeting and her first 
trial by jury. A wonderfully progressive peo- 
ple, those Mormons of the sand dunes. 

Washington Bartlett, the first alcalde of 
Yerba Buena, changed the name to San Fran- 
cisco. 

The name of John C. Fremont stands for 
California as does that of Dr. Marcus Whitman 
for Oregon. 

We called on the astrologer. When our horo- 
scopes were cast and our future told us, we 
bade adieu to China Town. 

The Golden Gate park is a perfect bower of 
beauty, a fine piece of landscape gardening. 

In the center of the park stands the Hall of 
Art, a handsome building of Egyptian archi- 
tecture. From the display in the relic depart- 




MUSEUM IX GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO. 



San Francisco i 8 i 

mcnt one easily reads the history of early days 
in California. 

In the department of statuary the loveliest 
figure was one in the beautiful carrara marble 
of Merope who was cast out of heaven because 
she fell in love with a mortal. 

A plaster cast of the head of David after the 
colossal statue by Michael Angelo set in place 
in Florence in 1504, attracted much attention. 

Michael Angelo had his troubles like other 
mortals. When his David was placed in posi- 
tion the mayor of Florence objected to the nose 
of the statue, saying it was too large. Angelo, 
perceiving that his critic's position gave him a 
poor light on the figure, took a handful of 
marble dust, a hammer and a chisel and climb- 
ing to the head of the statue gave the nose a 
few taps, at the same time letting fall the dust. 
The mayor without changing position declared 
the nose perfect. 

The Second Oregon had come home : Early 
in the morning the commanders were instructed 
to get their men ready to march to the barracks. 
Ten minutes later the regiment was on the 
wharf, the men wearing the blue shirts, brown 
trousers and leggins which they wore when 



1 82 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

charging through the jungles and over the rice 
fields in the Philippines. The mascot detach- 
ment was not so easily landed. 

" Here, Walker, take this monkey," shouted 
a corporal. 

'' Grab that goat quick, he is going over- 
board." 

"Lend me a hand here, you priv^ates; let's 
get this menagerie ashore," commanded the 
officer of the day. 

Order reigned about two seconds when 
'' Monkey overboard " turned order into chaos. 
Twenty men rushed to the edge of the wharf 
and strenuous efforts were made to save the 
life of the little brown fellow who had toppled 
off the gang plank. Ropes were carried from 
every corner of the wharf, but the efforts of 
the men were unavailing and the monkey lost 
his life. The other monkeys, the parrots, the 
dogs and the goat were safely landed. The goat 
chews tobacco and eats it too. 

The Oregon band struck up " Home Sweet 
Home " in quick time and the march to 
the Presidio began. 

For an hour or more a man near me had been 
talking in a pessimistic way about the war. He 
said this Philippine scuffle didn't amount to 



San Francisco i 83 

much anyway. What did we want with their 
old islands, anyhow ? We ought to return them. 
It was a violation of the constitution to keep 
them. 

Ten minutes later he was saying, " I can't 
stand it," as platoon after platoon went by with 
decimated ranks. One platoon had left nearly 
every man in the Philippines. 

There were others who " couldn't stand it." 
*' Home Sweet Home " sounded like a mock- 
ery. Up the street trudged these boys in blue, 
travel stained and weary, bearing the flag with 
holes in it, holes made by the death-winged 
bullets of the Filippinos. How gaunt and sick 
they looked. War had not been play with 
them. Not many cheers were heard. There 
were more " God bless you boys " than '' Hur- 
rahs." 

Other bands may play better, other bands 
may play louder, but none ever played more ef- 
fectively than the Oregon. 

Three big flags flung their folds to the ocean 
breeze as the regiment marched up the street. 
One of them was a dazzle of blue and gold and 
one bright and new, but one was the real Old 
Glory, torn by shot and shell, raveled and 
frayed by the Philippine winds. It was the 



184 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

battle stained, tattered emblem of our country's 
honor that received the heartiest cheers and 
warmest welcome. This was the flag that 
brought the mist before the eyes and brought to 
the mind Decatur's noble toast, " Our country. 
In her intercourse with foreign countries may 
she always be right; but right or wrong, our 
country." 

On stretchers borne by the ambulance corps 
came the sick and wounded. A great contrast, 
these war-worn soldiers, to the spick and span 
Sixth Cavalry which escorted them. 

Right royally did the Queen of the Golden 
Gate welcome home Oregon's noble sons. 

Passing the Examiner building nearly a mil- 
lion firecrackers which decorated the building, 
hanging in great loops and festoons, were set 
off. In the midst of this noise some one 
threw out a big boquet of American Beauty 
roses. A soldier caught them and sniffed their 
fragrance. " They're American Beauties, 
boys," he said and passed them on. Up and 
down the line went those roses, each man bury- 
ing his face in them for a moment, then passing 
them on to his brother. \Mien they had passed 
the rear line they were handed to the next pla- 



San Francisco 185 

toon, and so they went on down that l)attle- 
scarred line. 

The Httle FiHppino boy, Manuel Robels, who 
accompanied the boys home, caught nearly 
every eye as he trudged along, a sawed-off 
Mauser rifle over one shoulder and an Ameri- 
can flag over the other. Flowers were showered 
on him too. 

Out at Van Ness street General Shafter sat 
on horseback with his staff, to review the 
troops. 

Just beyond the place of review a compan}- of 
wee tots with military hats and lath guns stood 
at the edge of the side-walk and presented arms. 
All that gallant regiment, from the colonel to 
the little Filippino boy, returned the salute of 
those patriotic tots. 

Thus the noble Second regiment of the Ore- 
gon Volunteers marched out to the Presidio and 
to Fame's eternal camping ground. 

The Presidio, now the United States bar- 
racks, was established by the Spaniards in 
1776. Little dreamed they that out of this camp 
would come one hundred years later a conquer- 
ing host. 

The camp is delightfully located on the bay 



1 86 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

north of the city. The grounds include a thou- 
sand acres. The officers' quarters are neat, cosy 
cottages. The long porches and verandas of the 
barracks are covered with vines and roses. 
Rows upon rows of flowers such as only grow 
in this moist climate decorate the walks on 
either side. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CALIFORNIA FARMS AND VINEYARDS 

What temperament is to a man, that climate 
is to a country. The cHmate of Cahfornia is 
one of the most dehghtful in the world. 

California possesses the wealth of two zones. 
The ocean current gives it a temperate climate 
and the mountain ranges intercepting and re- 
flecting the sun's rays give California a climate 
distinctly her own. 

Fine fruit farms surround San Francisco 
for fifty miles. Irrigation, combined with a 
genial climate, produces the delicious fruit for 
which California is justly famed. In the vine- 
yards the vines are pruned low, from two to 
four feet high. The Leland Stanford vineyard 
is one of the finest on the coast, the low pruned 
vines with their dark green leaves and rich pur- 
ple fruit making a fine contrast to the red brown 
soil. 

California produces more wine to the acre 
than any other country in the world. The best 
1S7 



1 88 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

American wines come from Sonoma county, 
the Asti of America, where a thousand foot- 
hills are planted in choice wine grapes, and 
where nature supplies all the moisture necessary 
to perfectly ripen the fruit. 

The vines are planted eight feet apart, inter- 
sected hy wide avenues, down which the wagons 
pass in gathering up the hoxes into which the 
pickers have tossed the ripe grapes — only well 
ripened grapes make good wine. ]\Iany of these 
roadways are lined on either side with olives, 
palms and other semi-tropical plants. 

The pickers are mostly Swiss and Italian, 
men of practical experience in their own cou-n- 
tries. They work in groups and keep up a run- 
ning fire of jest and fun; ever and anon a happy 
heart breaks out in native song. 

Pitchers of rude crockery are scattered about 
filled with wine for the workers. 

Fromi San Diego to Dutch Harbor w'ne 
flows freely, but yet there is no drunkenness to 
speak of. 

The interest in a vineyard centers in the 
winerv and the wine cellars. The grapes are 
first picked from the stems, then thrown into 
the great crushers, the juice flowing away 
through flumes to the fermenting vats. Asti 




KARI.V MORNING, VUSEMU K VALLKV. 



California Farms and Vineyards 189 

boasts the laro-est wine-tank in the world. It is 
dug out of the soft stone which al)onn(ls in this 
country and Hned with a thick layer of cement. 

No less interesting is the cool, fragrant wine 
cellar. Here immense casks made of red wood 
stand upright, holding some of them, thirty 
gallons of wine. 

\Mien California was wild, the entire state 
was one sweet bee garden. Wherever a bee 
might fly, within the confines of this virgin 
wilderness, from forest to plain, from moun- 
tain to valley, from leafy glen to piny slope, 
chalices laden with golden nectar greeted him. 

Those halcyon days of our humble brown 
friend are past. The plov\^ and the sheep have 
played havoc with those once beautiful gardens. 
Now the lonely bee who would his trade pursue 
must fly far afield. 

Traveling east and south from San Fran- 
cisco, the fruit ranches are soon left behind and 
we enter the wdieat district. Here we find no 
irrigation ditches. Every farm has a wind-mill, 
which pumps water for the stock and also for 
the orchard and garden. The yield of wheat is 
low, averaging only about twenty-five bushels 
to the acre. 

This wheat is not used in the United States, 



I 90 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

being of a lower grade than Minnesota and Da- 
kota wheat. It is shipped to the eastern 
markets, China, Japan and the PhiHppines. 

We traveled ouq hundred and fifty miles 
through this district during the harvest. 
The combined har\ester and thresher, drawn 
by forty mules, cuts a wide swath, threshes 
the grain at once, sacks it and dumps 
it on the ground ready for shipment. 
The wheat ripens during the dry season and so 
thoroughly that it can be threshed immediately 
after cutting. As the farmer has no fear of 
rain at this time of the year, he lets the sacks 
lie in the field until he is ready to sell. 

The islands of the San Joaquin river are 
wonderfully fertile and many of them are under 
cultivation. The uncultivated islands produce 
every year a dense growth of bulrushes. Ef- 
forts have been made to utilize these in various 
ways. 




WAWUXA VALLE^ 



CHAPTER XV 

YOSEMITE 

Leaving the San Joaquin valley and its vast 
wheat fields we take the stage at Berenda and 
head direct for the sno\v-cai)ped Sierras. Gold 
mines now claim attention and we stop at Grub 
Gulch. '' The diggins " here are not very rich 
and we journey on over the low foot hills to 
King's Gulch, where a rich ciuartz lode is be- 
ing profitably worked by electricity. 

The drowse of a July noontide is in the air. 
Rattlesnakes wriggle through the short, dry 
grass. The Indians say that for every man a 
rattlesnake kills he gains a rattle. Most minds 
become panic stricken at the sight of a rattle- 
snake. Not so poor Lo, he slays his enemy and 
counts his rattles. 

Three hundred miles southeast of San Fran- 
cisco in the Sierra Nevada mountains lies the 
beautiful valley of Ahwahne, where Diana her- 
self might deign to follow the chase, for noble 
game roam these Arcadian wilds, where giant 
191 



192 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

sugar pines and silver firs lend beauty to the 
landscape. 

Higher up and nearer the heart of the moun- 
tains lies another lovely vale called the Indian's 
W^awona, where dwelt Naiads, Fauns and all 
their kindred tribe, 

" Upon a time, before the fairy broods 
Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods, 
Before King Oberon's bright diadem. 
Scepter and mantle clasp'd with dewy gem. 
Frighted away the Dryads and the Fauns 
From rushes green and brakes and cowsHpped lawns." 

— Keats. 

Here Jove himself treads not and forbears to 
hurl a thunderbolt. 

A bird's flight beyond this playground of the 
fairies, deep in the shady wood of the great 
sugar pines of Mariposa county are the giant 
Sequois, " the big trees." The Indians called 
them Waw Nonas, Big Trees. 

Five thousand years ago they struck their 
tiny roots deep into tlie soil of the mountains. 
Before Columbus was born they tossed their 
giant branches against the mountain storms. 
They have seen the passing of the Indian and 
the coming of the white man. 

In the ?eons of past centuries there were about 
thirty species of this genus scattered over the 




OLDEST LOG CABL\ LN THE SP:gUOIA GROV^E, MARIPOSA COLNTY 
CALIFORNLA.. OLD COLUMBLA L\ THE FOREGROUND. 



Yosemite 193 

earth. In Asia fossilized specimens of cones, 
foliage and wood have been found. To-day 
there are bnt two living- specimens of these trees 
on earth, the Sequoia gigaiitca and the Sequoia 
sempervirens, or redwood. The former are to 
be found only in the Sierras, while the latter 
grows only on the Coast range, and all in Cali- 
fornia. The largest tree in the Sequoia grove 
in Mariposa county measures one hundred and 
eighty feet in circumference and three hundred 
and sixteen feet in height. 

This, the largest tree in the world, has been 
named Columbia. 

The YoSemite, the most wonderful of all 
valleys, lies hidden deep in the heart of the 
Sierras. It detracts something from the ro- 
mance of the musical Spanish when one learns 
that YoSemite is only Spanish for grizzly bear. 
The first white men to enter the valley were 
looking for bear, not scenery. 

This wonderful valley, this marvelous gorge, 
" touched by a light that hath no name, a glory 
never sung," is a puzzle to geologists. It is a 
granite-walled chasm in the very heart of the 
mountains. The solid rock walls have split in 
half, one-half dropping out of sight, leaving 
only this beautiful valley to tell the tale. 



194 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Down the dark, frowning walls, which rise 
sheer from three to five thousand feet, 
plunge numerous waterfalls which leap two 
thousand feet at a bound. Through the 
valley flows the Merced river. Its water, 
clear as crystal, is full of that most delicious 
of all fish, mountain trout. A most pellucid 
stream does not flow on this continent. Up in 
the mountain the Merced river is a wild, roar- 
ing torrent, but through the valley it flows 
placidly over its white pebble bed, bathing the 
brown roots of the trees that fringe its banks. 
The trout float lazily along, leaping up to catch 
the insects that fly over the water, or sleeping 
in quiet pools and shady nooks along the bank. 
Here the cook drops his line out of the kitchen 
window and hooks trout for our breakfast. 

The air is fragrant with the odor of many 
blossoms. The murmur of YoSemite falls lu^ls 
one t(^ sleep as it goes leaping down five thou 
sand feet over the granite wall to the pool be- 
low, dashing with spray the flowers that bloom 
on its banks. 

YoSemite is truly a vallev with little sugges- 
tion of the canon about it. The Half Dome 
towering high above almost conceals the trench 
of the river, and the gorge of Tenaya creek. 




HALF DOME AND .MKRCKD RIVICk. 



Yosemite 195 

Several thousand broad acres spread out in a 
level tract on its long narrow bottom. 

El Capitan is the monarch of the world of 
rocks. A solid mass of granite, towering sky- 
ward three-fifths of a mile, barren except for 
one lone tree, an alligator pine, one hundred 
and twenty-seven feet high, growing on a nar- 
row ledge, in a niche a thousand feet above its 
base. Its rugged face, one and one-half miles 
across, kissed to a soft creamy whiteness by the 
suns of summer and the snows of winter. That 
is El Capitan, the wonder of the world. The 
Indians call it Tutockahnulah, in honor of their 
greatest chief. 

Scarred and hoary, the Three Brothers stand 
like severe hierophants, looking down into this 
mysterious vale. 

That marvel of lakes, Mirror lake, called by 
the Indians Sleeping Water, adds beauty to this 
wonderful valley, so placid, so clear the water 
that the rocky wall and every tree and shrub 
on its banks lie on the bosom of the water as 
if reflected in a mirror. 

'' Aloft on sky and mountain wall are God's 
great pictures hung." 

The legend of the lovely falls called Bridal 
Veil runs in this wise : 



196 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Centuries ago there lived in this valley one 
Tutockahnulah and his tribe. One day while 
out hunting, he met the spirit of the val- 
ley, Tisayac. From that moment he knew 
no peace. He neglected his people and 
spent his time in dreaming of lovely Tisayac. 
She was fair, her skin was white and the sun 
had kissed her hair to a golden brown. Her 
eyes reflected heaven's own blue. Her silvery 
speech like a bird's song led him to her, but 
when he opened his eyes she vanished into the 
clouds. 

The beautiful YoSemite valley being ne- 
glected In' Tutockahnulah, became a desert and 
a waste. When Tisayac returned she wept at 
the sight of her beloved valley. On the dome 
of a mighty rock she knelt and prayed the Good 
Manitou to restore the valley. In answer to her 
prayer the Great Spirit spread the floor of the 
valley with green and smiting the mountains 
broke a channel for the melting ice and snow. 
The waters went leaping down and formed a 
lake. The birds again sang and the flowers 
bloomed. The people returned and gave the 
name Tisayac to the great rock where she 
had knelt. 




MERCED RIVER, VOSEMITE VALLEY, 



Yosemite 197 

When the chief came home and learned that 
Tisayac had returned to the valley his love 
grew stronger day by day. One morning he 
climbed to the crest of a rock that towers three 
thousand feet above the valley and carved his 
likeness on it that his memory might live for- 
ever among his people. There is to this day a 
face on this rock, but whether carved there by 
the hand of man or by nature in some of her 
wild moods, remains a mystery. 

Resting at the foot of the Bridal Veil Falls, 
one evening Tutockahnulah saw a rainbow 
arching around the form of Tisayac. She beck- 
oned him to follow her. With a wild cry he 
sprang into the water and disappeared with 
Tisayac. Two rainbows now instead of one 
tremble over the falling water. 

At the upper end of the valley stands a giant 
monolith two hundred feet in height, called by 
the Indians, Hummoo, the Lost Arrow. 

Many thousands of snows ago before the 
foot of white man had trod these romantic 
wilds there dwelt in this valley the Ahwahnes, 
the fairest of whose daughters was Teeheeneh. 
Her hair, black as the raven's wing, unlike that 
of her sisters, fell in ripples below her slender 



198 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

waist. Her sun-kissed cheeks and teeth Hke 
pearls added beauty to a form graceful as that 
of a young gazelle. 

Kossookah, the bravest and handsomest war- 
rior of his tribe, came a wooing the beautiful 
princess, wooed and won her. 

All that delightful summer time these two, 
favored of the gods, rambled over the moun- 
tains. 

The wild torrents sang of the love of Kos- 
sookah, the brave, for Teeneeneh, the beautiful. 
The river murmured it; the lonely mountains 
echoed the refrain; the very leaves of the 
trees whispered it; the plumy children of the air 
gossiped about it, while each sun of the starry 
sky repeated the story. 

Time sped on golden wnngs, the mountains 
took on autumn tints, winter was approaching. 
Every member of the tribe lent a hand to assist 
in building a wigwam for the fair princess and 
her knight. 

The nuptials were to be celebrated with many 
ceremonies and a great feast. Teeheeneh as- 
sisted by her companions would grind the 
acorns into flour for the wedding cakes and 
gather nuts, herbs and autumn leaves with 
which to garnish and decorate the tables; w^hile 




YOSEMITE FALLS. 



Yosemite 199 

Kossookah with the chosen hunters of his tribe 
would scale the cliffs or climb the walls of the 
canon to the mountain fastness in search of 
game. 

The primitive home is completed. Kos- 
sookah and his braves de])art. At set of sun he 
will repair to the head of the YoSemite falls 
and report the success of the hunt to Teeheeneh 
wdio would climb the rocks to the foot of the 
falls to receive it. 

The messenger was to be an arrow to which 
Kossookah would attach feathers of the grouse. 
From his strong bow he would speed it far out 
that Teeheeneh might see it, watch for its fall- 
ing, recover it and read the message. 

The day was propitious. Seldom did an ar- 
row miss its mark. Evening came and the 
hunters had more game than they could carry 
down in one trip. 

Long ago in another clime Plautus said, 
" whom the gods love die young." 

Kossookah, proud of his success, repaired to 
the edge of the cliff beyond the falls, prepared 
the arrow, set it against the string of buffalo 
hide, stepped foward, when the cliff began to 
tremble and went down, carrying the brave 
Kossookah with it. 



200 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Long and lovingly did Teeheeneh wait for 
the signal. Night wrapped the mountains in 
gloom, but still Teeheeneh waited and won- 
dered. Could Kossookah be dead? Had the 
chase led him so far away that he could not 
return in time to keep his word to Teeheeneh? 
He might even now be coming down the In- 
dian canon. 

This new thought lent hope, and hope wings 
to the flying feet of Teeheeneh. From rock to 
rock, from ledge to ledge she sped with tireless 
feet, escaping many perils she reached the foot 
of the cliff. 

Finding no trace of Kossookah she paced the 
sands all the long weary night, hoping against 
hope that every hour would bring some tidings 
of her beloved. 

The pain at her heart increased with the 
hours, as she sang in the low soft voice of her 
race a passionate love song. The gray dawn 
found her still pacing the sands. 

Now, like a deer she springs over the rocks 
and up the steep ascent to the spot from 
whence the signal arrow was to wing its way to 
her feet. 

Ah, there were tracks in the sand, his tracks, 
but her call was answered only by the echo of 




EL CAPITAN. 



Yosemite 201 

her own sad voice. A new fracture marked a 
recent cleavage in the rocks. Could it be, Oh, 
Great Spirit could it be that her beloved had 
gone down with the rocks and perished. Her 
heart was almost stilled with agonizing fear. 
She faltered a moment only. Gathering 
courage she leaned over the edge of the cliff. 
There, stilled in death, lay the form of Kossoo- 
kah, in a hollow at the base of the monolith. 

The shock had cleared her mind. Hastily 
and with steady hands now she builds a signal 
fire on the rocky cliff. The fire by its intensity 
interpreted in the light of Indian signal fires, 
calls for aid in distress. Slowly the hours 
drag by. At last help arrives. Young saplings 
of tamarack are lashed together, end to end, 
with thongs of deer skin. When all is ready 
Teeheeneh springs forward and begs that no 
hands save hers shall touch her beloved dead. 
Slowly strong hands lower her to the side of the 
prostrate form of Kossookah. 

Kissing the pale lips of the dead warrior 
Teeheeneh unbinds the deer thongs from about 
her own body. Silently and deftly she winds 
them about the prostrate form of Kossookah. 
At a signal from Teeheeneh the lifeless body 
is drawn up. Again the improvised rope is 



202 A Pacific Ccast Vacation 

lowered. Teeheeneh nervously clutches the 
pole, puts her foot in the rawhide loop and 
waves her hand as a signal to be drawn up. 

Long and silently she gazes into the once love 
lit eyes of her dead hero. Her slight body 
sways and trembles like a reed swept by the 
wintry wind. Still silent, she sinks quivering 
on the bosom of her beloved. Gently they raise 
her, but her heart had broken and her soul 
taken its flight. 

The fateful arrow was never found. The 
Indians say that it was spirited away by Tee- 
heeneh and Kossookah and kept by them as 
a memento of their plighted troth and the close 
of their life on earth. 

On gossamer floats, their souls were carried, 
by unseen hands over the mountains to the 
Elysian Plains beyond, where there are no pit- 
falls and no broken hearts. 

Hummoo, the Lost Arrow, still stands, a 
monument to the brave Kossookah. 

See. •' In The Heart of the Sierras," by J. M. Hutch- 
ings. Mr. Hiitchings lived twenty-five years in the Yo- 
Semite Valley and knows this, the most beautiful, wild, 
and romantic spot on the American Continent, in all its 
varying moods of summer calm and wintry storm, and 
writes of it with a loving and sympathetic touch. 




BRIDAL VEIL P'ALLS AXD THE THREE BROTHERS (SOLID ROCK). 



Yosemite 203 

Of all the beautiful places in the world for a 
schoolhouse, surely '' The Valley " is the most 
beautiful. One rarely hears YoSemite on the 
coast. It is always with a lingering caress in 
the voice, '' The Valley." A dainty little white 
schoolhouse stands in a grove on the border of 
a glade. Here school is in session six months 
of every summer. The valley is only seven 
miles long and one and a half miles in width 
at its widest point. 

There are usually only five or six children of 
school age in the valley, but in the spring and 
summer people come into the valley to spend the 
summer. Many camp wliile others live at the 
hotel and in cottages. In many instances their 
children have left their home school before its 
close, and in order to make their grades for the 
ensuing year, attend '' The Valley School." 

Here the student of botany may find dainty 
asters, tiny wild peas, larkspur, monkey flow- 
ers, great ferns, the leaves two or three feet 
long; wild poppies, delicate sunflowers, purple 
gilias and broad faced primroses. Fiery cas- 
tillejas lend color to gray rocks and shady 
nooks. 

Stately pines, silver firs and graceful tama- 



204 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

racks stand massy, tall and dark, make a land- 
scape Mercury himself might pause to behold, 
no matter how urgent his errand. 

The Manzanita trees are now loaded with fruit. 
Manzanita is Spanish for little apple. The 
fruit of the tree is a perfect apple about the size 
of a gooseberry. Leather wood, a strange 
shrub naked as to leaves but abloom with bright 
yellow blossoms grows up in the mountains. 

For the student of zoology there are the bears 
which have their dens in the rocks a short dis- 
tance from the school. Wild deer and lion 
roam the mountains, while trout disport them- 
selves in the Merced river near by. 

The student of astronomy may see the sun 
rise five times every morning, and the White 
Fire Maiden, by mortals called the moon, lights 
up YoSemite falls and the north wall of the val- 
ley long before she appears in the blue sea 
above. 

The student in trigonometry will easily find 
a summer's work, the geologist a life-time 
study, while the anthropologist will be inter- 
ested in the few Indians who inhabit the valley. 

The valley is not without its early history 
when white man and Indian fought for su- 
premacy. 






MIRROR LAKK, SLEEi^ING WATKR. 



Yosemite 205 

One of the l^rightest pupils in tlie primary 
class is a little Indian o-jrl. This daui^liter of 
the red man reads well and is very proud of 
her accomplishment. She learned the multi- 
plication table before the other members of her 
class, but does not apply it so readily. 

" Tempus Fugit," we bid farewell to Yo- 
Semite, lovely vale, and take the trail over the 
mountains. The hour was morning's prime. 

Up we go three thousand feet, mules, guides 
and tourists, over a narrow trail that runs along 
the rocky ledge of the gorge. The purple at- 
mosphere hangs like a veil over the wild canon 
down which sweeps the Merced river, dashing 
and sparkling over rocks, tumbling over preci- 
pices or placidly flowing over its smooth rock 
bed. 

Far above a red flame swept and we caught 
the odor of Calypso's fire of cedar wood. The 
rising smoke mingled with the blue haze above, 
while the fire swept on, leaving only the black- 
ened, charred remains of the once green forest 
to tell the tale. 

Naiads danced in the sunny water and once 
methought I heard the soft, low strains of a 
flute played by a faun in the cool shadows of 
the trees which overhang the river's brink. 



2o6 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

Not a faun did we see, liowever, l)ut we met 
a f()(>l, torsoolli, a inotle} , nierrv UnA. This fool 
had a silken scarf draped about his foolish head 
to ward off the warm i^iances of Old Sol as he 
peered down the g'org-e to see what the fool 
was about. He tri[)ped lii^-htly alon^-, did this 
merry fool, slipping- past the sturdy little mules 
and their riders on the trail so narrow that one 
foot of the rider hung cn-er the gorge below, 
so narrow in many places that one misstep of 
the faithful little beast meant death to himself 
and his rider. Past the forty tourists went this 
untiring fool, frightening the animals and 
alarming their riders with his strange head- 
dress. 

Where were the guides? Right there say- 
ing things about the fool, quieting the animals 
and calming the fears of their riders. 

When this remarkably agile fool had reached 
the head of the caravan, down he would drc^p in 
the shade of a tree, his feet dangling in the dust 
of the trail, his Turkish headdress fluttering in 
the breeze, again causing the weary climbers 
to pause. Not every animal ])aused to look at 
the fool, the older ones were wiser. 

The blue sky, the odor of the ])ines and the 
falling, gurgling, murmuring water lent an 




YOSEMITIi FALLS, SHOVVLXG FLOOR OF TIIK \ALLi:V, 



Yosemite 207 

enchantment to tlie air, which made us forget 
the fool, hut for a moment only. Here he came 
again. Untiringly he followed us to the sum- 
mit of the mountains, eight thousand feet ahove 
the sea, where the soft ambient soothes like a 
benediction, and the soul uplifts in prayer. 

As these high altitudes make many people 
ill we were advised to carry with us a bit of the 
joyful. Arrived at the summit a dainty flask 
slipped from the folds of a lady's gown and fell 
to the earth with a thud. One of the guides 
picked it up and gravely presented it to the 
owner with the remark, " Madam, you have 
lost something valuable." 

As we stood looking dowm through the blue 
mist into the YoSemite below us — a landscape 
that would have delighted the heart and eye of 
a Homer — a quaint old lady who had braved 
the trail that she might view the valley from 
glacial point, exclaimed : 

''It's lovely, ain't it? Heaven don't need 
to be no purtier and I don't reckon it is, do 
you? Purty name, too, but I never kin re- 
member whether it's Yo-se-mite or Yu-summit. 

A personally conducted party arrived just 
ahead of us. Mr. Personally, as we dubbed the 
conductor, was a gentleman, so he informed us, 



2o8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

of many qualities. His voice was loiul cind 
commanding-, he was exceedingly volul)le, and 
froni the manner in which he hurried his party 
about I should say that he was a man of much 
energy. 

He came flying into the ladies' private bou- 
doir regardless of the confusion of shirt waists, 
ties, collars and riding habits that were flying 
through the air, commanding the ladies of his 
i:arty to hasten to the dining-room for 
luncheon. 

That repast served, Air. Personally Con- 
ductor ordered up the stages which were in 
waiting to take us down the mountains on the 
other side. After ordering e\'ervone else to 
stand back he ordered his party to " climb in," 
which they meekly did. 

We sat under a clump of silver firs thor- 
oughly enjoying the scene and calm in the con- 
sciousness that as the transportation company 
had carried us to the top of the mountains it 
was in duty bound to carry us down, either by 
stage coach, mule back or by rope and tackle. 
o\'er the rocky ledge and drop us three thou- 
sand feet to the valley below. 

Tw^o coaches were filled with " personally 
conducted " when the third drove up to the ve- 




SUNRISK I\ VOSEMITE VALLEV. 



Yosemite 209 

randa. Mr. Personally not being in sight the 
driver requested us to take seats in the coach, 
as it was growing late and time we were off. 

A brilliant man of our party, a New York 
lawyer, had just taken a seat by the driver, 
when that remarkable conductor appeared and 
sprang into the seat between them, pushing at 
Mr. Lawyer and calling lustily for Dr. Bluker, 
who was a member of his party. The doctor 
responded and grabbed our lawyer friend by the 
leg, attempting to pull him down. 

Mr. Lawyer turned to Mr. Personally, say- 
ing, " I don't know who you are sir, but — " 

'' I am a gentleman, sir," hastily replied the 
conductor. 

" Ah," exclaimed the lawyer at this astonish- 
ing bit of news, " I am always glad to meet a 
gentleman," and at his wife's solicitation 
bowed gracefully, relinquishing the seat to Dr. 
Bluker, a college president who for the moment 
might have been taken for Sitting Bull, chief 
of the Sioux. 

Ah, good people, 

" A chiel's amang you taking notes, 
And, faith, he'll prent it." 



CHAPTER XVI 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

The descent lay through groves of pine and 
cedar, beds of beautiful flowers, grassy glades, 
mountain brooks, tiny lakes, springs of ice cold 
water, and acres and acres of azaleas. 

In the center of a green glade lay a big brown 
bowlder surrounded by flowers. Just under 
the side of this bowlder was a s])ring of ice cold 
water. 

Just as the sun was sliding down the western 
horizon beyond the snow-capped peaks we ar- 
rived again in W^awona, valley, where the 
evening was spent in telling stories and relating 
adventures. 

" When in London recently," said our 
lawyer friend, " Chauncey Depew told this 
story : 

'' At a hotel where he was dining the wait- 
ress said to a young man, ' Wt have blackberry 
pie, peach pie, plum pie, strawberry pie and cus- 
tard pie.' 



Southern California 211 

*' ' Bring me some plum pie and some ])eacli 
pie. yes, and I'll take some blackberry pie.' 
As tlie waitress turned to fill tbe order the 
young man called her back, ' You may bring 
me some strawberry ])ie, too.' 

" ' What's the matter with the custard i)ie? ' 
incjuired she. 

'' The next morning Mr. Depew met a young 
Englishman on the street, who complimented 
him on his speech, saying that he really liked it 
very, very much, you know, but he would like 
to ask him one question, ' What was the matter 
with the custard pie? 

When the laugh had subsided a young lady 
in a pink shirt waist leaned forward in her 
chair, and looking earnesdy at the lawyer, 
softly inquired, " Well, what was? " 

In the laugh which followed, the English- 
man's stupidity was lost sight of in astonish- 
ment at that of the American girl. 

" Excuse me," said a well dressed lady to me 
one morning at the hotel in \\'awona, " I am 
a little hazy on my geography, but what I want 
to know is this — it I go to Denver will I be in 
Colorado? " 

After a week's fishing, dreaming and rest- 
ing in this beautiful valley, we returned to the 
coast. 



2 12 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

All up and down the Pacific coast as well as 
the islands of the sea are wonderful floating 
gardens. These gardens are composed of 
kelp, which attached to the bottom and to the 
rocks, grows from fifty to one hundred feet 
long, throwing out broad leaves and balloon- 
like air bulbs which support them. A perfect 
forest of broad green leaves rise upward, pre- 
senting a sharp contrast to the blue water in 
which they grow. Gracefully turning with 
every movement of the water they are among 
the most strikingly beautiful objects of salt 
sea. When near the shore these huge plants 
assume an upright position and become floating 
gardens in very truth, through which vessels 
plow with much difficulty. 

The entrance to the bay at Santa Barbara 
is a perfect maze of floating sea-weed. The 
leaves are covered with patches of color, repre- 
senting parasitic animals, or plants, greens, 
reds, purples and yellows, a perfect maze of 
color. 

Delicate sea anemones looking exactly like 
their namesakes on land. The slightest noise 
causes them to close up, withdrawing their ten- 
tacles, and presently blooming out again. 

Here are tiny plant-like animals growing in 



Southern California 213 

shrill) like forms. Wonderful jellyfish, too, 
fill the ocean at night with a phosphorescent 
light. 

In place of birds and insects in a sea garden 
we find shell animals, crabs and fishes clinging 
to the leaves. Along comes a big octopus 
throwing out his eight sucker-lined arms in 
search of food. Disturbed, he throws out an 
inky fluid, and while you are searching the 
black hole for him, he slips away. Yonder 
comes a nautilus holding his shell high over his 
head, crawling lazily along. Black-hued echni, 
bristling with pins and needles which, waving 
to and fro, ward off their enemies. Fish of 
all sorts and sizes inhabit the sea garden. 
The beautiful gold and silver fishes gliding in 
and out remind one of the birds flitting from 
tree to tree. In comes a big fish, the king of the 
bass, and the " small fry " scatter right and left. 
At night these strange gardens are aglow with 
phosphorescent lights. 

Los Angeles has been having a succession of 
earthquakes. 

The houses in San Francisco as w^ell as other 
coast towns are built to withstand earthquake 
shocks. On this account very few^ brick are 
used. An earthquake hotel is advertised. In 



2 14 ^ Pacific Coast Vacation 

this city, too, one may eat Pasteurized ice- 
cream without fear of the deadly ptomain. 

An orange, as every one knows, is a difficult 
fruit to eat gracefully, but I've learned how to 
do it in this land of the citron. A gentleman 
assured me that the only proper place to eat an 
orange was in the bathtub. 

Up and down the length of this coast I've 
not been able to get a decent lemonade. Very 
few places serve that drink at all. Drinks 
there are plenty, but no lemonade. Now I know 
what those warnings mean which hang up in 
every stateroom on the steamers : '' Passengers 
strictly prohibited from getting into bed with 
their boots on." 

California is rich in stories of her early days. 
Just east of San Francisco lies a narrow valley 
bordering on the bay of San Pablo. The first 
white man to enter this valley was one Miguel 
and his wife, who named it El Hambre (Hun- 
ger) valley. 

Miguel built an adobe hut and planted a gar- 
den. Later he started to San Francisco, for 
supplies. Madam Miguel remained at home to 
tend the garden. Miguel would return in three 
weeks and all would be well. 

Time passed slowly to the lonely woman. 



Southern California 215 

When the three weeks had passed EmiHa 
packed a burro and started out on the trail 
which her husband had taken. At night she 
tethered the burro and rolled in her blanket 
slept by the roadside. Dawn saw her on the 
trail. The third day her burro neighed and 
was answered by a donkey which proved to be 
that of Miguel. Hurrying on she found her 
husband lying on the roadside, dead. She re- 
mained there until the sun set, then covered him 
with a blanket and returned home. 

Later some traders wandering through the 
valley found her skeleton in the garden. The 
adobe still stands in the now^ new town of 
Martinez. 

Dick Brown, miner of Misery Hill, was a 
sort of recluse, who never made any friends 
among the miners of the Eldorado of the west. 

One day while out prospecting, a landslide 
carried him down the valley and buried him be- 
neath it. His body was recovered and buried, 
but his ghost walked nightly at the foot of the 
old shaft. 

A lazy, seemingly good-for-nothing sort of a 
fellow, Wilson by name, began work in 
Brown's mine. It was a good mine and paid 
Wilson well until some one else began working 



2 1 6 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

it. Every morning there was evidence that 
some one had been at work during the night. 

One night Wilson loaded his rifle and waited 
for his nightly intruder. Hearing a noise he 
started to follow it up. 

What was that on yonder tree, which glowed 
with a phosphorescent light? Wilson crept 
nearer. There, tacked on a big tree, was a 
notice, " D. B. his mine. Hands off." 

A moment later the notice was gone. 
As he passed on he heard the water 
flowing through the sluice and the sound of a 
pick in the gravel. There stood Dick Brown. 
Wilson raised his rifle and fired. A yell, and 
the ghost of Dick Brown came flying after him 
as he ran down the hill. 

The next morning a pick and shovel were 
found by the roadside bearing the initials 
" D. B." cut on the handle of each. Wilson de- 
serted the claim, but the sluice on Misery Hill 
ran on for many years. 



CHAPTER XVII 

HERE AND THERE ON THE COAST. 

Leaving San Francisco, a sail of twenty- 
five miles brings us to the grimly fortified island 
of Alcatraz, the watch dog of the Golden Gate. 

Forty miles inland lies the beautiful Napa 
Valley. Farm houses and villages dot the 
landscape. Orchards, vineyards and fields of 
waving grain heighten the natural beauty of 
this Rasselas Valley, rich in groves of oak trees 
from which depend festoons of mistletoe, 
meadows and running brooks. 

At the head of this valley stands Mount St. 
Helena, once a center of volcanic action. Was- 
nossensky, the Russian naturalist ascended to 
its summit in 1841, and named it in honor of 
his empress, leaving on the summit a copper 
plate bearing the name of himself and his 
companion. 

The Russians, with a view to commercial 
and political aggrandisement, did a great deal 



21 8 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

of exploring in California in the early days of 
her history. 

By stage we travel through the Napa Valley 
to the geyser fields. On either hand are groves 
of redwood trees, cousins of the Giant Se- 
quoias. In the springtime the odor of the 
buckeye fills the delicious morning air, just now 
the handsome eschscholtzias, commonly called 
the California poppy, brighten the meadows. 
Here and there lichen stained rocks lend a 
deeper tone to the landscape. 

Through this valley of strange wild beauty 
we arrive at the Devil's Canon. The nomen- 
clature of this weird place is something auda- 
cious and one wishes that he might change it. 
Here the hero of the canon has his kitchen, his 
soup bowl, his punch bowl, and his ink pot. In 
this spring you might dip your pen and write 
tales of magic that would rival those of India. 

Here, one dreary night, a lonely discouraged 
miner who had lost his way, sat in meditation, 
when presently a strangely clad figure ap- 
proached him. The dark face wore a sinister 
expression, black eyes sparkled under villainous 
brows. 

" Ha, ha, ha," laughed the stranger when he 
discovered the miner. 



Here and There on the Coast 219 

" What would'st thou? Riches? Sign here 
and they are thine, or thou may'st toss me into 
yon caldron." 

FHnging aside the long black cloak that en- 
veloped his figure he stood forth, his scarlet 
robes gleaming a fiery red in the black night. 

" Sign here," and dipping his fire tipped pen 
into the ink pot he thrust it into the hand of the 
astonished miner, presenting a scroll of parch- 
ment for the signature. 

'' Ha, ha, ha," came in tones diabolical, as the 
fortune hunter seized the pen in his eager grasp. 
Knowing better how to wield the pick than the 
pen he seized the scroll and — made the sign of 
the cross. 

His Satanic Majesty gave an unearthly yell, 
seized the pen and scroll, and disappeared leav- 
ing his ink-pot behind. 

The prevailing rocks are metamorphic, sand- 
stone, silicious slates and serpentine. The 
stratification dips sharply to the bed of Pluton 
Creek. 

There are no spouting geysers here, only 
bubbling springs, but springs of beauty and in- 
terest. Here lies one, its waters a creamy 
white, and yonder another whose waters are 
deeply tinged with sulphur, while those of its 



2 20 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

neighbor are as black as the contents of that 
bottle the undaunted Luther flung at the head 
of his Satanic Majesty on that memorable day. 

The waters of these springs boil over and 
mingle as they flow away. Steam jets hiss and 
sputter continually. Of the many strange 
springs, pools and caverns, the Witch's Caldron 
is perhaps the most remarkable. A very pit of 
Acheron, this huge cavern in the solid rock, 
seventy feet in diameter, is filled to an unknown 
depth with a thick inky fluid, that boils and 
surges incessantly. The waters of these springs, 
rich in sulphur, iron, lime and magnesia are 
said to rival in medicinal qualities those of all 
the famous German Spas. 

The geysers are due to both chemical and 
volcanic action; to water percolating down 
through the fissures of the rocks until it comes 
in contact with the heated mass of hot lava; and 
to water percolating through the mineral de- 
posits. 

Suffice it to say that you have not seen Cali- 
fornia until you have seen the Napa X^alley, 
and taken the trail to Mount St. Helena and the 
geyser fields. 

The very air of this delightful country is 
rife with bear stories. Stories in which the 



Here and There on the Coast 221 

bear quite as often as the Ininter comes off 
victor. 

A cowlioy, newly arrived in California, went 
out on a bear hunt. He went alone. He wanted 
to kill a grizzly. 

He soon found his bear and lassoed him, but 
Bruin, contrary to his usual custom of showing 
fight, took a header down a caiion, horse and 
rider in full pursuit. 

Upon nearing the foot of the ravine the bear 
fell down. The horse fell down and the man 
tumbled down on top of the grizzly which so 
frightened him that when the three untangled 
themselves he set off" up the caiion, and the man 
let him go. Glad, glad to the heart that he was 
gone. 

Assyria had her winged bull, Lucerne has 
her lion, and California has her grizzly. 

The grizzly stands for California, and only 
awaits some future Thorwaldsen to perpetu- 
ate him on the walls of his own rock-ribbed 
canon. 

The Indians of California were possessed of 
many strange superstitions when the Francis- 
can Fathers established missions among them. 

The Fathers called it " devil worship." but 
to the simple childlike mind of these primitive 



222 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

people it was a sort of hero worship, and the 
wild child worshiped on despite the Fathers. 

The worship of a god known as Kooksuy 
was one to which the Indians held with great 
tenacity. The monks had forbidden the wor- 
ship of this deity, so Kooksuy had to be wor- 
shiped in secret. 

A lonely, unfrequented place in the moun- 
tains was chosen, and a stone altar was raised 
to Kooksuy. This consisted of a pile of flat 
stones five or six feet in height. 

It was the duty of every worshipper to toss 
something onto the altar as an act of homage. 
This act was called '' poorish." 

A Kooksuy altar was a curious affair. The 
foundation of stone was frequently hidden 
under a mass of beads, feathers and shells. 
Even garments and food found their way to the 
throne of this strange deity. Thus the altar 
continued to rise for no Indian would dare 
touch a '' poorish " offering. 

The priests destroyed the altars and punished 
the worshipers, but that did not destroy their 
faith in their god. 

At the missions every Indian retired when 
the evening bell rang. When the good alcalde 
made his rounds they had counted their beads 



Here and There on the Coast 223 

and shut their eyes. Ten minutes later half 
a dozen dusky forms might he seen creeping 
stealthily along in the shadows of the buildings. 
Arriving at the chosen spot a big fire was built 
around which the faithful Indians danced call- 
ing on their god in a series of weird whistles. 

Kooksuy never failed to appear in the midst 
of the fire in the form of a huge white dragon, 
but with the destruction of his altars, the 
neglect of his worshipers and fear of the white 
man Kooksuy appeared less frequently and 
finally his visits ceased entirely. 

According to the Indians the Great Manitou 
threw up the Sierra Nevada range with his own 
hands. Then he broke away the hills at the 
foot of the lake and the waters drained into the 
sea through the Golden Gate. 

The clouds rested on the water and the set- 
ting sun lit up the Golden Gate with the glory 
of the sea as we steamed across the bay and 
bade adieu to the land of Pomona and her cit- 
ron groves. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

WALLA WALLA VALLEY 

Walla Walla is so named from its abun- 
dant supply of water. Many little streams run 
over the surface and many more under o^round. 
This valley is noted for the richness of its soil, 
which is decomposed lava, and its wonderful 
climate. This delightful climate is shorn of its 
harshness by the magical breath of the Chinook 
wind. 

The principal crop here is wheat. A Walla 
Walla ranchman never thinks of planting any- 
thing else. The soil is so easy of cultivation 
that all he needs to do is to plow the ground, 
sow the wdieat and go fishing until it is ready 
to harvest. Wheat brings him wealth and 
prosperity. 

Every year one-half of a ranch is allowed to 
lie fallow, but an Illinois farmer would rotate 
crops instead. The fallow fields, however, are 
kept perfectly clean and free from weeds. 
224 



Walla Walla Valley 225 

Durinj^ the rainy season the soil, which is 
rich in potash and phosphoric acid, stores up 
moisture sufficient to mature the wheat. Only 
three pecks of wheat are sown to the acre, as 
the grain stools very much. 

The average farm contains six hundred 
acres, but there are many ranches of from a 
thousand to fifteen hundred acres. 

For cutting the grain the old-fashioned 
header is used, also the ordinary reaper and 
binder, but the combined harvester and thresher 
is the king of reapers. It is drawn by from 
twenty-five to thirty mules, cuts the grain, 
threshes it, sacks it, and dumps it on the ground 
ready for shipment. 

Wheat averages from twenty to thirty 
bushels to the acre. Some years the average 
is much higher. In 1898 wheat went sixty 
bushels to the acre. 

The price of land runs from thirty dollars to 
sixty dollars per acre. Comfortable homes and 
green orchards dot the landscape. The or- 
chards, however, must be irrigated. The Blue 
mountains supply plenty of water for this pur- 
pose. 

At the experiment stations established 



226 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

throughout the semi-arid regions of the west, 
investigation of the excessive alkaU in the soil 
is being carried on. 

In many regions of CaHfornia and Utah 
large tracts of irrigated land are practically 
non-productive because of the presence of an 
excess of alkali. Investigation has proven that 
this is due to excessive irrigation. When 
water is applied to the soil it brings to the sur- 
face when it rises, the salts. 

In seeking a remedy for this evil the ex- 
periment stations have demonstrated that in 
most instances crops do not require nearly so 
much water as is usually applied to them. 
Working along practical lines in the solution of 
this, to the West, great problem, the stations 
hope eventually to show just what quantity 
of water a given crop in a given locality re- 
quires. 

The establishment of this truth will save 
much land now under ditch and extend the area 
of irrigation by demonstrating that more land 
can be supplied with water from the available 
supply. 

In Montana, Idaho, Washington and the 
semi-arid districts of other states experiments 
are being carried on in the line of forage plants. 



Walla Walla Valley 227 

In these states success has been quite satis- 
factory with the cow pea, which is usually 
planted with oats. Red clover flourishes as 
well here as in the East. 

Success in farming depends upon a thorough 
knowledge of soil, climate and rainfall. The 
farmers are coming to depend upon the experi- 
ment stations for much of this knowledge. 

Agriculture was early practiced in this val- 
ley, the Walla Walla region proper being part 
of the old Oregon country. The Hudson Bay 
Company established posts at the junction of 
the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers, at Fort 
Vancouver on the Columbia river and at Fort 
Colville in the Colville valley, north of the 
present city of Spokane. With these people 
agriculture and the fur trade went hand in hand. 
In 1828 seven hundred bushels of wheat were 
raised at Fort Vancouver and in 1829 seventy 
acres were under cultivation at Fort Colville. 



CHAPTER XIX 

HISTORICAL REFERENCES 

Just as a Bede Bible and a '' quart of seed 
wheat " saved the British Isles to Christianity ; 
so '' the Book " and another " quart of seed 
wheat " carried in by the Reverend Spalding, 
saved Oregon to the United States, notwith- 
standing the Russian Bear, the British Lion 
and the bull of Alexander the VI. in which he 
delivered over all North America to Spain. 

'' Good old times those were when kings 
thrust their hands into the New World, as 
children do theirs into a grab bag at a fair, and 
drew out a river four thousand miles long, or an 
ocean, or a tract of wild land ten or fifteen 
times the size of England." 

The king of Spain sold Louisiana to Erance 
for money to buy his daughter a wedding 
present and for one brief while Erance had 
hopes of planting her lilies in the Walla Walla 
Valley. Erance, however, had met her Water- 
loo in America, on the Plains of Abraham. 
228 



Historical References 229 

Then came England denying the vaHchty of 
the old Franco-Spanish title under which we 
claimed the Oregon country, but the same 
policy that lost to Great Britain her thirteen 
colonies, lost to her this princely domain. 

American and English settlements contrasted 
strangely. The one emigrant came with his 
traps and snares, the other with his plow and 
quart of seed wheat. The one came for the 
fortune which he might carry out of the 
country, the other to make a home for himself 
and his children. So, the English trapper wath 
his snares and the Indian with his pogamoggan 
retreated before the advance of American 
civilization. 

In 1836 Mrs. Whitman, wife of Dr. Whit- 
man, wrote from Fort Vancouver that the 
Hudson Bay Co. had that year four thousand 
bushels of wheat, four thousand bushels of 
peas and fifteen hundred bushels of oats and 
barley, besides many root vegetables, also poul- 
try, cattle, hogs and sheep. 

The metropolis of the valley is Walla Walla. 
It is a well-built town having a population of 
several thousand. Man}- of the stores and bus- 
iness blocks are of brick. Its streets are wide. 
In the suburbs is a military post, also a college 



230 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

established by the Congregational church in 
honor of Dr. Marcus Whitman, the well known 
missionary who was massacred at his mission 
near Walla Walla in 1847. So died the brave, 
patriotic Whitman. 

In 181 3 England, basing her claims on 
Drake's discoveries, captured Astoria and for 
years kept her hands on the Oregon country, 
to be thwarted at last by one brave American. 

The story of Marcus Whitman's life should 
be enshrined in the heart of every school-boy in 
America. 

From the busy thriving city of Spokane, the 
center of the agriculture empire of the Pacific 
Coast, to Missouli along the headwaters of the 
Columbia is a most interesting journey. High 
above, the grim Cascades rear their shaggy 
heads. Magnificent pines lift their crested 
heads skyward. The Columbia, '' rock-ribbed 
and mighty," sweeps on, now placidly, now 
whirling and eddying, tossing its waters up in 
foamy spray, now breaking into white cascades, 
beautiful as Schaufifhausen on the noble Rhine. 
The rugged rocks along the shore are hidden 
by festoons of grape and wild honeysuckle 
vines, while the bright salmon berry adds a 
touch of color. 



Historical References 231 

Here is a bit of western fiction, a study in ev- 
olution that would interest a Haeckel. These 
berries falling into the water float away into 
brown pools and shady nooks and there change 
into the red fish known as salmon. 

The gentleman who told me this wonderful 
tale of magic assured me that it was true, and 
that the Fish Commission had made a report of 
it. Like the tale of the banshee, however, he 
had never seen it but he knew people who had. 

Scientific errors should be corrected, so I 
will give you the facts about the salmon trout. 
It was that mischievous god Loke, who to es- 
cape the vengeance of Thor hid himself in a 
cave, but when he heard the thundering voice 
of that noble god, 

" He changed himself into a salmon trout 
And leaped in a fright in the Glommen." 

Slippery as a salmon is a common adage in 
Norseland. 

The most beautiful spot in this region is 
Lake Pend d'Oreille. The scenery of this 
lovely lake rivals that of Lake George. Its 
blue waters bathe the brown feet of rugger 
mountains. 

It is early morning on Lake Pend d'Oreille; 



232 



A Pacific Coast Vacation 



the mountain breeze, the gentle swish of the 
water as it laps the shore, the white, 
graceful-moving sail-boat all entice you for 
a clay's fishing. Tired of this sport you 
sail over and rest under the wonderful Blue 
Slide. The mountain bordering on the lake at 
this point has crumbled away, sending down its 
bowlders into the lake. From the boat you look 
up a smooth incline plane two thousand feet, 
above which rises the precipice itself another 
thousand feet. The slide is covered with a pale 
blue clay, while the precipice itself is a mix- 
ture of granite and clay tinged with iron. 
Large pines grow on the very edge of the preci- 
pice. 

The junction of Clear Water and the Snake 
rivers in Idaho is a place of historic interest. 
We are now in the country traversed by Lewis 
and Clarke. 

The history of the great Northwest is won- 
derfully fascinating. The history of no part of 
this great territory is more tragic than that of 
Montana. Her savage tribes, her cosmopoli- 
tan population called into existence by her fur 
trade and mining industry, all combined to pro- 
duce in Montana a peculiar phase of civiliza- 
tion, but she has beaten dirks and bowie knives 




ENTERING HELL GATE CANON. 



Historical References 233 

into plowshares and now follows the gentle arts 
of peace. A magnificent mountain range, lovely 
valley, beautiful river and a delicate, graceful 
flower — Bitter Root. Bitter Root is the state 
flower of Montana and lends its name to the 
river, mountains and valley of its native heath, 
growling most luxuriantly in Bitter Root val- 
ley. 

This valley is one of the most beautiful as 
w^ell as the most productive in the state. Ly- 
ing- at the eastern foot of the Bitter Root 
Mountains it is shielded from the cold, west 
winds. The climate is fine while the soil in 
most places is rich and deep. Timothy and 
clover grow luxuriantly. Baled hay brings 
from seven to ten dollars per ton at the railroad 
station. Dairy farming and poultry raising are 
profitable industries. Butter sells at forty cents 
per pound in the winter and twenty cents in the 
summer. Eggs bring the same price. Butte, 
Helena and other mining centers supply the 
market for Bitter Root Valley. 

Bitter Root orchards are immune from dis- 
ease. The leas ophis has appeared but as yet 
has done no injury. Bitter Root Mountains 
were the stronghold of the Nez Perce Indians. 

Hell Gate canon is one of the most pictur- 



2 34 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

esque in the Rocky Mountains. It is wild and 
beautiful. Its fir-clad slopes rise thousands of 
feet high. A lion steals stealthily along, 
noiselessly as Fear herself, owl answers owl 
from the tall trees, and soft shadows lend en- 
chantment to the light of the pale moon that 
hurries you along like Porphyro's poor guide 
on the eve of St. Agnes, with agues in your 
brain. 

Deer Lodge lies in a beautiful valley, sun- 
browned now, with just a hint of autumn's 
grays and purples. 

John Bozeman was a noted frontiersman in 
the early days of Montana. His name is per- 
petuated by Bozeman's pass, Bozeman's creek 
and Bozeman city, all in Gallatan valley. 
This valley, once the bloody battle-ground of 
the Blackfeet, the Bannacks, the Crows and the 
Nez Perce Indians is now one of the widest 
known and best cultivated in the state. 

Helena, the capital of Montana, is a thriving, 
prosperous city. Through the Gate of the 
Mountains we enter a little valley called Par- 
adise. Like a beautiful dream this lovely val- 
ley lies in the cold bosom of the rugged moun- 
tains; which, looming high above, shield it from 
the wintry blast. 




LIBERTY CAP AND ULU FORT YELLOWSTONE. 



Historical References 235 

Mighty canons, rock-ribbed, gloomy and 
dark, have been gouged out of the very hearts 
of the cold, gray mountains that pierce the blue 
of heaven. But this sun-lit vale, too fair for 
the abode of man, lies just as nature left it, blue 
canopied, the cool green grass and murmurmg 
Yellow Stone. 

The Devil in a merry mood one day, coasted 
down the mountain at Cinnebar, scorching 
blood red a wnde, smooth slide that would de- 
light the daring heart of a tobogganist. 



CHAPTER XX 

YELLOWSTONE PARK 

The artist may paint you a bit of sky, a lit- 
tle water, a few trees, and mayhap a bluebird 
or a merry brown thrush, but can he paint the 
gently moving restless air or the storm that 
sweeps down the mountainside, the murmur, 
the ripple, the roar of the river, the whir of the 
bluebird's wing as it rises to flight, or the 
thrush's song? 

It is beyond the power of brush or pen to 
paint the wilderness, the beauty, the weirdness, 
the awful grandeur of this land of Malebolge, 
sulphurous pits and boiling lakes, a fit dwelling 
place for Minos, infernal judge; the elusive 
beauty of a playing geyser, the iridescent 
sparkle of the water as it leaps the rocky preci- 
pice and pours down the mountain's great 
throat, or the diabolical scene of the famous 
Mud Geyser where, — 

" Bellowing there groaned 
A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn 
236 




HOTEL MAMMOTH, HOT SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE PARK, 



Yellowstone Park 237 

By warring wings. The stormy blast of hell 

With restless fury drives the spirits on, 

Whirled round and dashed amain with sore annoy. 

When arriving before the ruinous sweep, 

There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans.'* 

With horrible groanings the thick sulphur- 
ous mass is driven against the sides of the deep 
crater. 

'* Wherefore delay in such a mournful place? 
' We came within the fosses deep, that moat 
This region comfortless, the walls appeared 
As they were framed in iron, we had made 
Wide circuit ere we reached the place where loud 
The mariner (guide) vehement cried 
* Go forth, the entrance is here.' " — Dante. 

We had circled the Mammoth Hot Springs, 
down a way by a ladder we entered the Devil's 
kitchen. This is a defunct geyser. The way 
was dark and the air hot as the heat penetrated 
the walls from the Hot Springs. The water 
of these springs is rich in minerals, copper, iron 
and sulphur. As the water boils over and 
evaporates it leaves deposits on the rims fret- 
ting them with a delicate frost work of varied 
and beautiful hues. Cream and salmon deepen- 
ing into rich shades of red, brown, green and 
yellow. 

The Cleopatra Spring is one of the most 
beautiful. Located on a mound forty feet high 



23 B A Pacific Coast Vacation 

and covering an area of three-quarters of an 
acre, the deep blue water, the sparkhng white 
basin with its pale yellow frost- fretted rim 
rivals the touch of the artist's brush. 

Just below the springs the broad level tract 
in front of the United States barracks covers 
a treacherous burnt-out area. We were stand- 
ing on a veranda of the hotel observing the 
maneuvers when one of the cavalry horses 
broke through the thin crust. His rider recov- 
ered him and they were off before the treacher- 
ous ground gave way. A rope was brought 
and the soldiers lowered one of their comrades, 
who dropped thirty-five feet before he struck 
a landing place. Investigation showed the en- 
tire platte to be dangerously honeycombed. 

Through the Golden Gate we enter King- 
man's Pass. The stupendous walls of golden 
yellow rock rise sheer hundreds of feet high on 
either side. 

Just as we turned a point in the road such 
*' Ohs " and " Ahs " as the Rustic Falls of the 
Gardener River burst on our sight. The river 
falls sixty feet into a series of shallow basins 
of 'moss covered rock. To the sides of the 
basin cling wavering ferns and delicate spray- 
kissed flowers. 



OLD FAITHFU 



GEYSER. YELLOWSTONE PARK, JUST BEFORE 
AN ERUPTION. 



Yellowstone Park 239 

The most wonderful mountain in the world 
stands on the shore of Beaver Lake. A glass 
mountain of pure jet black glass, rising sky- 
ward in basalt like columns from one hundred 
to two hundred and fifty feet. The Ijlack glass 
streaked here and there with red and yellow 
glistens in the sunshine as peak and pinnacle 
catch, imprison and reflect the sun's rays. 

Large blocks have become detached from 
time to time forming a glass slide into the lake. 
Obsidian is a species of lava. Pliny says 
this glass was first found in Ethiopia, but 
the only glass mountain in the world stands on 
the shore of Beaver Lake. The Indians used 
this glass for arrow heads and in making sharp- 
edged tools. 

The swampy, lily-padded margin of Beaver 
Lake is haunted by wild geese. This lake is 
the beaver's own. These industrious little 
animals constructed it by damming up Green 
Creek for a distance of two miles. Some thirty 
dams sweep in graceful curves from side to 
side each having a fall from two to six feet. 

The geyser basins are places of unusual in- 
terest and beauty. No scene in the park is 
lovelier than these areas of bubbling pools, boil- 
ing lakes and steaming geysers, at sunrise, 



240 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

when the columns of white steam, tinged to a 
roseate hue by the rising sun, ascending against 
the background of dark green pines. Pres- 
ently, — 

" There came o'er the perturbed waves 
Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made 
Either shore tremble, as if a wind 
Impetuous, from conflicting vapors sprung. 
That 'gainst some forest driving with all his might, 
Plucks ofif the branches, beats them down, and hurls 
Afar; then, onward passing proudly sweeps 
His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly.'' 

— Dante. 

Thus warned we moved away just as Old 
Faithful shot his boiling waters skyward. 

" Ask thou no more 
Now 'gin rueful wailings to be heard. 
The gloomy region shook so terribly 
That yet with clammy dews chill my brow. 
The sad earth gave a blast." 

— Dante. 

And steam and water shot up a column 
two hundred feet high. The Giant Geyser was 
playing. 

" We the circle crossed 
To the next steep, arriving at a well 
That boiling pours itself down a foss 
Sluiced from its source." 

—Dante. 




YELLOWSTONE LAKE. 



Yellowstone Park 241 

This well is the formidable Excelsior Geyser 
which pours its waters into the Fire Hole River. 

The Paint Pots are springs which boil in- 
cessantly their pasty clay, which boiling over 
hardens, building up a rim around the pot. In 
one group of seventeen pots are as many differ- 
ent colors. 

The center pot is a pearl gray, while grouped 
about it are smaller pots of various shades of 
pink, gray, chocolate, yellow, red, lavender, 
emerald and sapphire blues and white, mortar 
thousands of years old that would make the 
heart of a plasterer glad. Here is a plaster 
which when hardened, whether by sun or fire, 
never cracks. 

Of a somewhat different character are the 
chocolate jugs on the banks of the Fire Hole 
River. These springs are rich in iron. The 
sediment hardens as the water pours out, build- 
ing up gradually a brown jug-like cone. 

The Blue Mud Pot is quite as interesting as 
the Paint Pots. Its circular basin is twenty 
feet in diameter. The mud is about the con- 
sistency of thick plaster. This mud pot pre- 
sents a beautiful picture as the puffs of mud 
burst with a thud-like noise giving off perfect 
little rings which recede to the sides of the 



2^2 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

crater. This spring is strongly impregnated 
with alum. In this vicinity is a spring of pure 
alum water and several of sulphate of copper. 

These springs are clear and deep, having 
beautiful basins, the rims of which are lined 
with incrustations of brilliant colors. 

In a gloomy wood we came to the De\irs 
frying pan, a shallow, hot, boiling spring which 
sputters, sizzles and hisses equal to any old- 
time, three legged skillet, sending out sulphur- 
ous odors that would delight the nostrils of 
Lucifer himself. 

Hell's half acre is quite as interesting as its 
name. Here in times gone by Excelsior Gey- 
ser shook the earth. 

One lovely morning we mounted to our seats 
in the stage coach, the driver cracked his whip 
over the heads of the leaders, six creamy white 
horses pricked up their ears, sprang forward at 
a gallop and we were off to the Continental 
Divide. 

We had just crossed a glade where deer were 
grazing when a hail storm, a mountain hail 
storm, overtook us. In five minutes the ground 
was white, the hail laying two inches deep, and 
such hail, an Illinois hail storm is tame in com- 
parison. 




CAMPING ON THE SHORE OF LAKE YELLOWSTONE. 



Yellowstone Park 243 

The horses plunged forward, the hail was 
left behind, and we paused on the Great Divide. 
Down from this watershed the waters flow east 
and west. 

The lovely Lake Shoshone comes into view 
and presently we are standing on its shore look- 
ing down through its blue waters. The eleva- 
tion of this lake is greater than that of its royal 
neighbor, the Yellowstone. 

This most lovely of all American lakes, the 
Yellow Stone, is perched high in the very heart 
of the mountains, its blue waters lapping the 
base of cold, snow-capped peaks, rivals in 
beauty the far famed Lake Maggiore. 

On these beautiful shores fair Nausicaa 
with her golden ball might have deigned to 
tread the mazes of the ball-dance. 

The elevation of this lake is marvelous for its 
size. Drop Mount Washington, the highest 
peak in the White Mountains, into the center of 
it and the summit would be swept by a current 
half a mile deep. 

This lake affords royal sport. Here are the 
most beautiful fish in the world, the rainbow 
trout. 

Through a pine-clad gorge flanked by high 
bluffs the impetuous Yellowstone River makes 



244 A. Pacific Coast Vacation 

its way until it leaps the great falls and plunges 
down three hundred and fifty feet to the cafion 
below. 

On the sides of the spray- washed walls grow 
mosses and algae of every hue of green, ochre, 
orange, brown, scarlet, saffron and red. On 
rugged peaks are brown eagles' nests. 

The Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, 
w^ould you describe this marvelous gorge, lan- 
guage is inadequate, words are poor. 

Would you paint it, on your palette place all 
colors yet produced by the ingenuity of man. 
Mix them with rainbow drops. The pale faced 
moon will lend a shade, the stars another 
and the sun still another as he drops 
blood-red down through the mists of the sea. 
Stir and mix with matchless skill until you have 
of colors half a hundred and shades as many 
more. Now boldly dash the stupendous walls, 
castles, pinnacles, turrets, columns, and mina- 
rets where already they are gleaming a bright 
vermilion as they from Vulcan's fiery fur- 
nace issued long ago. 

When you have these colors fixed let Phae- 
thon drive down the gorge in his chariot of fire 
leaving behind the gleam and the glow of it. 

Here, the Sioux chiefs, crouching by their 




PAINT POTS ON SHORE OF YELLCJVVSTONE LAKE. 



Yellowstone Park 



245 



camp fires muttered their griefs and their woes. 
Here Rain in the Face cried out in revenge, 
revenge on the White chief with the Yellow 
Hair. 

Yonder lay Sitting Bull with his three 
thousand warriors hidden in cleft and cave. 
Into the fateful snare dashed the White chief 
with his pitiful three hundred men. Like a 
mountain torrent Sitting Bull and his braves 
swept down upon that gallant band, and but one 
was left to tell the story of the Little Big Horn, 
but one to tell of the gallant stand of Custer and 
his brave men. 

Only two survived of all that noble band, 
one. Curly, the half-breed scout, and the other, 
*' Comanche," the horse of Captain Keogh. 
Comanche was found several miles from the 
battle field with seven wounds. He recovered 
and the secretary of war detailed a soldier as his 
attendant. 

Here, too, the Crow took revenge when 
driven back by the white man. Here they peo- 
pled the boiling, hissing springs and the steam- 
ing geysers with evil spirits, while beyond the 
mountains lay the Happy Hunting Ground. 

A small remnant of this band gathered at the 
head of the Grand Canon and there resolved 



246 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

with Spartan courage to die rather than be 
removed to a distant land there to die of home- 
sickness and longing for the blue sky and the 
breath of the sweet air of their beloved moun- 
tains. 

They built a raft and set it afloat at the foot 
of the Upper Falls feeling the peace and se- 
curity that the mountains give, but they were 
rudely awakened one morning by the sharp 
crack of the white man's rifle, the soldiers were 
upon them. Hastily boarding their raft they 
pushed it out into mid-stream. The strong 
current gathered the craft tossing it and pitch- 
ing it onward on its foamy crest. The soldiers 
gaze in wonder, forgetting to fire. On, on, 
faster whirls that frail craft while above the 
wild roar of the water floats the death song. 

Beyond, yawns a chasm three hundred and 
fifty feet deep, the death chant is lost amidst 
the roar of the mighty torrent. The hardened 
soldier shudders as that lone adventurous craft, 
freighted with the remnant of a powerful peo- 
ple, is gathered in the arms of that mighty 
torrent, hurled over the brink and dashed to 
pieces on the cruel rocks below, where the Maid 
of the Mist washed white each red man's soul. 

On June twenty-seventh last, word was tele- 




GRAND CA.NON OF THE VKLL( )\VST()XP:. 



Yellowstone Park 



247 



graphed over the country that a new geyser 
had burst forth from an old crater about fifty 
feet from the famous Fountain Geyser. The 
eruption played from two hundred to tw^o 
hundred and fifty feet high. 

Tired, stage tired, we were snug in comforts 
and blankets and sound asleep one night in 
August at the Fountain hotel, when about 
twelve o'clock gongs sounded, bells rang and 
porters went running about pounding on the 
doors and crying, what seemed to our sleepy 
imagination, '' Fire," but presently we heard 
distinctly the words, the new geyser is play- 
ing. " The new geyser is playing," went echo- 
ing down the corridors. 

In ten minutes every tourist was out, in all 
sorts of costumes from blanket to full dress, 
either shivering on the long veranda or hurry- 
ing down to the basin to see the new geyser 
play, and right royally he did it, too. 

Upward into the black night shot a stu- 
pendous column of water three hundred feet 
high. The porters were the first to arrive and 
playing their red calcium lights on the wonder- 
ful body of falling water gave us a display of 
fire and water that must be seen to be appre- 
ciated. The now flaming vermilion column 



248 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

rose steadily upward, seemingly through the 
red glare three hundred feet, the delicate, rose 
colored steam rising much higher, swayed in 
the breeze, now falling, now lifting, now float- 
ing away into the black night a rosy cloud. 

The hotel cat hurried to the scene of action 
but lost his bearings and stood fascinated by 
the magic scene, the hot spray falling about him 
until some one picked him up and carried him 
out of danger. 

In the reception hall of this hotel an old 
fashioned fireplace filled with glowing pine 
logs sent out showers of welcoming sparks. A 
big green back log sang again the anthem of the 
wild storm-swept mountain forest, while out- 
side the rain came down in torrents. 

The most wonderful features of the Rocky 
Mountains lie within the confines of Yellow- 
stone Park. The world's oldest rocks, granite, 
gneisse and basalt are found here. Later 
dynamic action held sway and the region be- 
came the center of mountain building on a 
grand scale. Rocky beds tossed up and down. 
Next came the reign of Vulcan. Fire held 
sway. Volcanic materials overflowed the re- 
gion. Next came the ice age, when glaciers 




GIBBON KIVER FALLS. 



Yellowstone Park 249 

plowed down the mountain sides. Just now 
the hydrothermal agents are most active. 

After miles of mountain climbing and five 
hundred more of staging in the heart of the 
Rockies, through groves of pine firs, spruce 
and cedar, along streams and lakes bordered by 
aspen, willow and wild flowers, through glades 
and glens, ravines and gorges, one begins to get 
some idea of the vastness, ruggedness and 
grandeur of the mountains and the delicacy of 
the climate. One begins to understand how in 
average summer temperature of sixty degrees 
pinks, geraniums, orchids, mosses, roses and 
lilies, alternately bathed in sunshine and snow, 
bloom on, reaching a perfection beyond that of 
our prairie flowers. 

The mountain thistles are beautiful beyond 
compare. The delicate purple blossoms are 
born on slender stems, the dainty green leaves 
touched with white, drooping gracefully, give 
the plant more the appearance of an orchid than 
of the common weed it is. 

Over in Hayden valley roam fifty head of 
bufifalo, all that is left of that royal band, the 
fine for killing one of which is five hundred 
dollars. Deer and elk roam ravine and moun- 



250 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

tain side, sleek, fat fellows that make you glad 
that they are under Uncle Sam's protection. 
We passed a group of deer in a wooded ra- 
vine, their smooth coats shining like satin in the 
sunshine as they gazed at us out of pathetic 
brown eyes that had something of the human in 
them. 

" I couldn't kill one of them innocent crea- 
tures if the law permitted me," said the driver, 
who was an old mountaineer and loved the 
things of the mountains. 

Now^ and then one sees a mountain lion. The 
less noble game abound also, the fox, martin, 
beaver, woodchuck and gopher. Ground squir- 
rels run about the hotels and camps in search of 
food. Under our window one evening three of 
these little animals were having a tug of war 
over a bread crust. The crust at last divided, 
one lost his hold and the other two ran away 
w^ith the spoil. 

The gray squirrels are very numerous, show- 
ing little fear of the passer-by as they run 
along playing tag or race up and down the 
trunks of great trees. 

The Rocky Mountain quail differs from our 
own in being larger and having a crest on its 
head. 



Yellowstone Park 



25 



Both Black and Cinnamon bear haunt the vi- 
cinities of the hotels and camps in search of 
food. A big black fellow was pointed out to 
us one morning who had stolen a ham from one 
of the camps the night before. The ham had dis- 
appeared and there stood Bruin waiting for a 
chance to steal another. One of the men walked 
up to him and gave him a slice of bacon, which 
he took from his hands. When he had eaten it 
he looked inquiringly about for more. This 
time the meat was hung up in a tree. Bruin 
sniffed the odor, located the bacon, climbed the 
tree, knocked the meat down and came down 
and ate it. Then he sat down on his haunches, 
folding his paws and looking up at his new- 
found friend as if asking for more. 

At the Fountain hotel are two cubs, Micky 
and Anna Rooney. They are very fond of 
sugar. When offered any food they stand up 
and reach out their paws for it or they will take 
it out of your hand. 

Micky is a happy rollicking fellow, but Anna 
is more sedate, quick of temper and free in the 
use of her paws when angry. When offended 
she climbs to the top of her pole and sitting 
down on the board nailed there refuses to come 
down for anything less than a lump of sugar. 



252 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

As these bears are still mere babies they are 
fed milk from a bottle. They stand up, clasp 
the bottle in their paws and proceed to drink 
the milk through a hole in the cork. 

One evening something was wrong with 
Micky's bottle. \Miile the attendant was fix- 
ing it Micky dropped on his haunches, folded 
his paws across his chest, holding his head first 
on one side then on the other, looking very wise 
the while. The attendant being somewhat 
slow, Micky dropped to the ground but never 
once took his eyes off that bottle. While 
Micky was waiting for his supper Anna had 
finished hers and was thrusting her paws into 
the pockets of the attendant in search of candy 
and sugar. 

At another hotel was a Bruin and her two ba- 
bies. When these youngsters refused to enter 
the bath tub provided for them the mother 
would coax them to the edge of the tub, push 
them in, hold them down and give them a good 
scrub. 

The National Park should be extended one 
hundred miles farther south to the Black-Hole 
country. The park game descends to the Black- 
Hole during the winter where the hunters lay in 



Yellowstone Park 253 

wait for it. In this way park buffalo were 
nearly exterminated. 

Of the natural wonders of the world our 
country possesses namely : Niagara, Yellow- 
stone Park, Yosemite, Grand Canon of the 
Colorado, and the Glacial Coast of Alaska. The 
Mammoth Cave might take sixth rank, but 
leaving it out we will not go to Europe, but to 
the Himalayas for one and to the Andes for 
the other. 

The petrified forests are equally as interesting 
as the geysers. Southwest of Pleasant Valley 
is a small grove of petrified trees. Near Hell- 
roaring Creek is a massive promontory, com- 
posed of conglomerates, and numerous beds of 
sandstones and shales. Throughout these strata 
are numerous silicified remains of trees. Many 
of the trees are standing upright just as they 
grew. 

On the northern side of Amethyst Mountain 
is another section of strata nearly two thousand 
feet high. The ground here is strewn with 
trunks and limbs of trees which have been petri- 
fied into a clear white agate. Tn one place 
rows of tree trunks stand out on the ledge like 
the columns of an old ruin. Farther down the 



254 A Pacific Coast Vacation 

mountain side are prostrate trunks fifty feet 
long. The strata in which these trunks are 
found is composed of coarse conglomerates, 
greenish sandstone and indurated clay. 

These strata contain many vegetable and ani- 
mal remains. Branches, roots, snakes, fishes, 
toads and fruits. Among these petrified ob- 
jects one finds the most beautiful crystalliza- 
tions of all shades of red from the delicate rose 
to a deep crimson. As to the trees the woody 
structure is in many cases well preserved. 

Just beyond the eastern boundary of the park 
lies the Hoodoo region of the Shoshone Moun- 
tains. Here, in the very heart of the old 
Rockies the banshee, ghosts and goblins of all 
the region round about hold high jinks. 

The scenery is wild and rough. The 
Goblin Mountain itself is over ten thousand 
feet high and a mile long. The storms of ages 
have carved the conglomerate breccia and vol- 
canic rocks into the most strange, wxird and 
fantastic shapes. 

The vivid imagination of the Indian sees in 
these gigantic forms, beasts, birds and reptiles. 
Here a couchant tiger and there the huge figure 
of a Thunder Bird. Yonder a hungry bear sits 
on his haunches waiting for a passing Indian. 



Yellowstone Park 255 

In the moonlight strange spectral shapes seem 
to pass in and out these weird labyrinths. The 
rocks are all shades and colors. Mysterious 
sounds in the air above add interest to the 
most weird scene in the Rockies, a fit setting for 
the witch scene in Macbeth. 

In yonder dark cavern the huge cauldron 
might boil and bubble as the fire lights up the 
faces of the sinister three who stir the grew- 
some mess, while around yon black bowlder 
stealthily steals guilty Macbeth. 

Which of the grand scenes do I treasure the 
most? I do not know. I cannot tell. Each 
in turn holds, fascinates, and enthralls the 
mind. Each becomes in the language of 
Keats : 

" An endless fountain of immortal drink, 
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink." 



THE END 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



The Travels of a Water Drop 

is a volume of sketches, studies from nature. The 
travels and adventures of this particular Water Drop 
are so interestingly written that it ought to occupy a 
prominent place in children's classics. Each sketch in 
the book is a gem in its way. For scientific accuracy 
and literary beauty this little volume is recommended 
to nature lovers. Cloth, small i2mo. Fifty Cents. 



JUN 



1901 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 137 269 • 




